
Class ! L 

Book_ 

GojpghtN? 

CDKRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



QUIET TALKS 

On the Deeper 
Meaning of the War 



S. D. GORDON'S 

QUIET TALKS 



Quiet Talks on Power 
Quiet Talks on Prayer 
Quiet Talks on Service 

Quiet Talks About Jesus 

Quiet Talks on Personal Problems 

Quiet Talks with World Winners 

Quiet Talks About the Tempter 

Quiet Talks on Home Ideals 

Quiet Talks About Our Lord's Return 

Quiet Talks on Following the Christ 
Quiet Talks About the Crowned Christ 

of the Revelation 
Quiet Talks on John's Gospel 

BOOKLETS 

A Quiet Talk with Those Who Weep. 
A Quiet Talk about the Babe of 

Bethlehem 
Prayer Changes Things 
The Consummation of Calvary 
Crowding Out the Christ Child 
Keeping Tryst. Decorated boards, 
Jesus Habits of Prayer. Decorated 

boards 
The Quietest Talk. i6mo, paper 
The Quiet Time. With Daily Prayer Pages. 



QUIET TALKS 

ON THE DEEPER 

Meaning of the IV ar 

And Its Relation to Our Lord's Return 



BY 
S. D. GORDON 




Mew York Chicago 

Fleming H. Revel I Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 19 19, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



jots? 



DEC -3 1919 



New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London : 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh : 75 Princes Street 



©CI.A5868 30 



Preface 

The world is trying to catch its breath. Such 
an upheaval, in extent and in intensity, has not 
occurred for centuries, at the least. Thoughtful 
men have been trying to sense its meaning. An 
interpretation that is sane, and sufficient to all 
the facts, has been difficult to get. 

The interpretation I have ventured to suggest 
here came slowly through the long years of the 
fighting. The teachings of the Bible, with which 
it is coupled, came more slowly through longer 
years. It has all been dug out simply to answer 
my own questions. It is given here in response 
to strong pressure. 

Regarding the teachings of the Bible here I 
have tried not to express any personal opinion. 
My task has been simpler. It has been to gather 
out such passages as seem, in their first meaning, 
to refer to things that clearly have not yet taken 
place, and so are distinctly future; and then to 
put them together in what seemed the logical, 
connected, common-sense order. 

I would never have ventured on such a risky 
thing as seeming to forecast the future, but for 
a deep and deepening conviction that the inter- 
pretation given here is, in the main, accurate. 
There can be no question of the full depend- 
5 



6 Preface 

ability of the Word of God throughout. It's 
wholly a matter of interpretation. 

This is the third little book I have ventured to 
send out about Christ's Return. The studied 
limitations of each will indicate the distinctive 
difference of each from the others, and so the 
definitive scope of the present one. "Quiet 
Talks About Our Lord's Return" is confined to 
a detailed study of the New Testament teachings 
on the subject. "Quiet Talks About the Crowned 
Christ of the Revelation" is devoted wholly to a 
detailed study of the last book of the Bible. 
"Quiet Talks on the Deeper Meaning of the War 
and Its Relation to Our Lord's Return," in this 
division of its contents, is confined to a detailed 
study of the Old Testament teachings on the 
subject, except enough of a rapid review of the 
New Testament teachings to adjust the two 
groups of teachings together, and so get a sum- 
mary of the teachings of the whole Bible on this 
subject. 

The Scripture quotations are from the Revised 
Version, except where otherwise noted. Where 
they vary from the English Revision it is be- 
cause the American is judged in those particular 
cases to be more nearly accurate. A number of 
times I have made free paraphrases so as to ex- 
press more clearly and fully the thought of the 
language underneath. 

S. D. Gordon. 

New York City. 



THE HOUND OF HEAVEN 1 

FRANCIS THOMPSON 

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days ; 

I fled Him, down the arches of the years ; 
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways 

Of my own mind ; and in the mist of tears 
I hid from Him, and under running laughter. 
Up vistaed hopes, I sped; 
And shot, precipitated, 
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears, 
From those strong Feet that followed, followed 
after. 

But with unhurrying chase, 

And unperturbed pace, 
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, 

They beat — and a Voice beat 

More instant than the Feet — 
"All things betray thee, who betray est Me." 

J The love of God, strong as a father's, tender as a 
mother's, eager as a lover's, undiscourageable as a 
true friend's, persistent as God's own only is, is so 
simply, exquisitely portrayed in this poem of Francis 
Thompson's that I have obeyed an insistent inner 
urging in giving it a fresh errand here. God's pur- 
pose, that is, Love's purpose, never gives up its eager 
pursuit of every man, and of the race, and of His 
ideal for both. And that is the story of this little 
book on the War and Christ's Return. 



8 The Hound of Heaven 



I pleaded, outlaw-wise, 
By many a hearted casement, curtained red, 

Trellised with intertwining charities ; 
(For, though I knew His love Who followed, 

Yet was I sore adread 
Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside.) 
But, if one little casement parted wide, 

The gust of His approach would clash it to. 
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue. 
Across the margent of the world I fled, 
And troubled the gold gateways of the stars, 
Smiting for shelter on their clanged bars ; 
Fretted to dulcet jars 
And silvern chatter the pale ports o' the moon. 
I said to dawn : Be sudden ; to eve : Be soon — 
With thy young skyey blossoms heap me over 
From this tremendous Lover ! 
Float thy vague veil about me, lest He see ! 

I tempted all His servitors, but to find 
My own betrayal in their constancy, 
In faith to Him their fickleness to me, 

Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal deceit. 
To all swift things for swiftness did I sue ; 
Clung to the whistling mane of every wind. 
But whether they swept, smoothly fleet, 
The long savannahs of the blue ; 

Or whether, Thunder-driven, 
They clanged His chariot 'thwart a heaven, 
Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o' 
their feet : — 
Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue. 



The Hound of Heaven 9 

Still with unhurrying chase, 

And unperturbed pace, 
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, 

Came on the following Feet, 

And a Voice above their beat — 
"Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter 
Me." 

I sought no more that after which I strayed 

In face of man or maid; 
But still within the little children's eyes 

Seems something, something that replies, 
They at least are for me, surely for me ! 
I turned me to them very wistfully ; 
But just as their young eyes grew sudden fair 

With dawning answers there, 
Their angel plucked them from me by the hair. 

"Come then, ye other children, Nature's — share 
With me" (said I) "your delicate fellowship; 
Let me greet you lip to lip, 
Let me twine with you caresses, 

Wantoning 
With our Lady-Mother's vagrant tresrs, 

Banqueting 
With her in her wind-walled palace, 
Underneath her azured dais, 
Quaffing, as your taintless way is, 
From a chalice 
Lucent- weeping out of the dayspring." 
So it was done : 



10 The Hound of Heaven 

I in their delicate fellowship was one — 
Drew the bolt of Nature's secrecies. 

I knew all the swift importings 
On the wilful face of skies; 
I knew how the clouds arise, 
Spumed of the wild sea-snortings ; 
All that 's born or dies 
Rose and drooped with ; made them shapers 
Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine — 
With them joyed and was bereaven. 
I was heavy with the even, 
When she lit her glimmering tapers 
Round the day's dead sanctities. 
I laughed in the morning's eyes. 
I triumphed and I saddened with all weather, 

Heaven and I wept together, 
And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine ; 
Against the red throb of its sunset-heart 
I laid my own to beat, 
And share commingling heat ; 
But not by that, by that, was eased my human 

smart. 
In vain my tears were wet on Heaven's gray 

cheek. 
For ah ! we know not what each other says, 

These things and I ; in sound I speak — 
Their sound is but their stir, they speak by 

silences. 
Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth ; 

Let her, if she would owe me, 
Drop yon blue bosom- veil of sky, and show me 
The breasts o' her tenderness: 



The Hound of Heaven 1 1 

Never did any milk of hers once bless 
My thirsting mouth. 

Nigh and nigh draws the chase, 

With unperturbed pace, 
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, 

And past those noised Feet 

A Voice comes yet more fleet — 
"Lo! naught contents thee, who content 'st 
not Me/' 

Naked I wait Thy love's uplifted stroke! 
My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn from 
me, 

And smitten me to my knee ; 

I am defenceless utterly. 

I slept, methinks, and woke, 
And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep. 
In the rash lustihead of my young powers, 

I shook the pillaring hours 
And pulled my life upon me ; grimed with smears, 
I stand amid the dust o' the mounded years — 
My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap. 
My days have crackled and gone up in smoke, 
Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream. 

Yea, faileth now even dream 
The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist ; 
Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist 
I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist, 
Are yielding ; cords of all too weak account 
For earth, with heavy griefs so overplussed. 

Ah ! is Thy love indeed 
A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed, 



12 The Hound of Heaven 

Suffering no flowers except its own to mount ? 
Ah ! must — 
Designer infinite ! — 
Ah! must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst 

limn with it ? 
My freshness spent its wavering shower i' the 

dust; 
And now my heart is as a broken fount, 
Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, split down ever 

From the dank thoughts that shiver 
Upon the sighful branches of my mind. 

Such is ; what is to be ? 
The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind 1 
I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds ; 
Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds 
From the hid battlements of Eternity: 
Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then 
Kound the half-glimpsed turrets slowly wash 
again ; 

But not ere him who summoneth 

I first have seen, enwound 
With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned ; 
His name I know, and what his trumpet saith. 
Whether man 's heart or life it be which yields 

Thee harvest, must Thy harvest fields 

Be dunged with rotten death? 

Now of that long pursuit 
Comes on at hand the bruit ; 
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea: 
"And is thy earth so marred, 
Shattered in shard on shard? 



The Hound of Heaven 13 

Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fly est Me! 

Strange, piteous, futile thing! 
Wherefore should any set thee love apart? 
Seeing none but I makes much of naught" (He 

said), 
"And human love needs human meriting: 

How hast thou merited — 
Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot? 

Alack, thou knowest not 
How little worthy of any love thou art! 
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, 

Save Me, save only Mef 
AU which I took from thee I did but take, 

Not for thy harms, 
But just that thou might' st seek it in My arms. 

All which thy child's mistake 
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home: 

Rise, clasp My hand, and come.' 9 

Halts by me that footfall : 
Is my gloom, after all, 
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly ? 
"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, 
I am He Whom thou seekest! 
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me." 



Contents 

I. The World War Just Closed . 17 

Personal experiences in Germany — Facts of 
the war — Beginnings — Spread — Extent — 
Races involved — Religions — Forms of gov- 
ernment — Methods — Bitterness — Cost — 
Neutrality — Apparent cause — Real cause — 
The decisive factors in the victory. 

II. The Significance of the War 42 

Perplexing questions — A bunch of " nots " — 
Interpretation — Threefold significance — 
Satan's latest attempt at world dominion — 
Can a Christian fight ? — Greatest intensifying 
of significant characteristics — The war a per- 
sonal plea — The acid test. 

III. The Crisis Coming in the Affairs 

of the Earth .... 76 

Friendly signals — Index-fingers — The world 
situation at the time — The Jew situation — 
The Church — The spirit-world — A coalition 
of nations — An evil king of kings— The per- 
secution — First phase of Christ's return — The 
visitation of judgments — Second phase of 
Christ's return — The transition period — The 
Jew index-finger. 

IV. The New Order of Things on the 

Old Earth Immediately Follow- 
ing the Crisis . . . .113 

The broken ideal — The world-wide chorus — 
Racial longing — A God-kingdom on the 
earth — Yet a Jew-kingdom — But a radically 
changed jew — The Church is the adminis- 
trator of the kingdom — The same laws of na- 
ture and of life — But certain radical moral 
changes — The purpose of the kingdom — Its 
length — Not the final thing. 

15 



16 Contents 

V. The Evidence in the Case . .145 

The messages of the long twilight — Amos, 

Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 

Joel. 
The messages of the night — Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 

Daniel. 
The messages of the slow dawn — Haggai, Zech- 

ariah, Isaiah, Malachi. 
A brief rapid review of the messages of the New 

Testament. 
A summary of the teachings of the whole Bible. 

VI. The Present Outlook . . . 267 

The scant recognition of Jesus at His first com- 
ing — The Paris Peace Conference — The 
league of nations — The world's drift back to 
the Mediterranean — The present Jew move- 
ment — Church conditions — Moral conditions 
— The unfailing acid test — The practical atti- 
tude. 

Appendix 284 



I 

THE WORLD WAR JUST CLOSED 

Contrasting German Scenes. 

It was early evening of an August day in 
Nineteen Eleven. We were guests on a friend's 
estate up in Mecklenburg, about six hours by 
rail north of Berlin. Nearly a score and a half 
of family and guests were gathered about the 
long board in the old dining hall. 

The table shone with the best of silver and cut 
glass and linen. Most of the guests were officers 
of the German Army. For the annual imperial 
manceuvers were in action preparatory to the 
finals in the Kaiser's own presence. 

The conversation naturally ran about the 
strenuous events of the day. And from that it 
easily drifted to war. There was a marked 
enthusiasm among the officers for war. Its 
virtues were extolled, and its great value to 
society. My wife was quite astonished. She 
turned to the officer by her side, and her face 
plainly revealed her attitude, as she said, ' ' Why, 
you talk as though you wanted war." 

With the utmost coolness and complaisance he 

replied, ' ' Of course, that 's the only way we have 

to distinguish ourselves." And my wife stared 

at him aghast, and tried to assure herself that 

17 



18 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

her ears had heard correctly. It was our first 
close touch with the utter heartlessness and re- 
fined brutal selfishness of aggressive Prussian 
militarism. 

We had gone up to Mecklenburg from Blank- 
enburg in Thuringia, in Central Germany, the 
little town where Froebel started his first kinder- 
garten. Our Mecklenburg host was one of the 
inner group of leaders in the Blankenburg Con- 
ference, which corresponds roughly to Keswick 
in England and to our own Northfi eld in Moody's 
day. 

For ten days there had been in attendance on 
the Conference nearly, if not quite, two thousand 
persons. They came from all over Germany, 
with a few from adjacent countries, France and 
Switzerland, and Austria, and Russia. They ate 
together at noon at the large common dining 
tables under the trees, nobility and merchants, 
middle class and peasants, all together in a fine 
Christian unity. 

And I have never looked into more thoughtful 
earnest Spirit-lit faces than those that looked up 
into mine daily, during those ten never-to-be- 
forgotten days. They belonged to what is called 
over there the Gemeinshaft, that is, the "fellow- 
ship " ' groups, those who had fellowship together 
with the Lord Jesus. 

The German Church seemed to divide into 
three groups. There were the rationalistic lib- 
erals and radicals who were mentally active and 
aggressive. There were those orthodox in be- 



The World War Just Closed 19 

lief, who were perfunctorily proper, and in a 
deep rut. And then there were the GemeinsJiaft. 
These were little groups all over the empire, 
really converted people, hungry-hearted, some 
remaining within Church fellowship, and some 
who had formed independent congregations, as 
in the Rhine districts. 

Those two pictures have lingered tenaciously 
in my mind all through the war days, the 
heartlessly ambitious officers unscrupulously- 
bent on their quarry regardless of methods, who 
represented the ruling dominating classes of the 
empire. And that democratic group of earnest 
folk in their fine Christian unity who stood for 
the small minority. 

I was telling an American friend recently of 
that Blankenburg scene. And he blurted out 
intensely, " Where were all those people during 
the war f " It 's a question I Ve often asked my- 
self, and as often answered my own question: 
most of them knew only as much of the war as 
the strictly -censored, government -controlled 
newspapers allowed to sift through to them. 

Some few who may have sensed the real situa- 
tion, as I am persuaded some did, doubtless 
prayed much. For what else could they do? 
Living under as despotic a regime as ever Metter- 
nich devised, or Czar authorized, with prison or 
the firing squad awaiting protest, what could 
they do but bide their time and pray? 

I have no thought of considering less than it 
was, or is, the responsibility that rightly belongs 



20 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

to the German people. But I certainly have no 
sympathy with the attempt being made to be- 
smirch the essential character of the German 
masses because they are German. Things are 
bad enough without that. The Germans have 
their own natural characteristics, but they are 
fully the equals intellectually and in moral dis- 
cernment of those against whom they fought. 
That makes their condemnation the greater. 

What is the real meaning of this war? Such 
a stupendous event has a meaning. And the 
thoughtful Christian is concerned to discern 
clearly just what that essential meaning is. Of 
course, we're all concerned, intensely, intimately, 
from every standpoint. But chiefly the Chris- 
tian is concerned because he is a follower of 
Christ. And it is of that deeper meaning that 
I want to talk a bit here. 

Jesus was a world man in size. He did not 
come to the Jew, merely. That was only the 
door. He came through the Jew door, but He 
came to a world. He did not come to Palestine, 
simply. That was merely the door-sill. He 
stepped across the Palestinian door-sill, but He 
came to a world. 

He talked about a world, though humanly He 
came of a people peculiarly clannish. He lived 
for a world, He said. And it was for a world 
He died, He said. And at the last He talked to 
the inner group of disciples about a world cam- 
paign. He was a world man in size and reach 
and ambition. 



The World War Just Closed 21 

And so the true follower of Christ is a world 
man, in size and outlook and praying and think- 
ing. And so he is intensely concerned about 
this war because it is a world war, really the 
first world war in actual extent. 

It ranks as one of the world's most stupendous 
events. It ranks with the break-up of the Roman 
empire by the northern invasion centering in the 
sacking of Rome by Alaric. It ranks with the 
checking of the Saracen invasion of Europe at 
Tours in the eighth century, and with the 
Reformation, and the Napoleonic campaignings. 

For all of these profoundly affected the after- 
civilization of Europe and the world. The 
four-years' war has upset the life of the world, 
industrially, financially, socially, and politically, 
as has no other equal period of time. And the 
thoughtful Christian wants to get it placed in his 
thinking in clear bold true outline. 

I have been trying hard for four years to see 
things as they really are, with no prejudicial 
colouring in my glasses. It was my privilege to 
be in the British Isles for a year and a half on 
an errand for the Master before the war came. 
It took me from the Scottish Highlands to Corn- 
wall, and to the Isle of Man and Ireland. 

I ate at the British board, warmed by their 
fires, sheltered under their roofs, slept in their 
beds, and knelt by their family altars. And I 
love the British people. If you want to know 
a real homey home, go to a typical English home, 
and Scottish, and Irish, and Welsh. 



22 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

And for something less than a year the same 
errand took me np and down and across the land 
of the Germans. I ate their bread and salt, 
sheltered from storm under their roofs, slept 
sweetly in their beds, talked by their fires of the 
deeper things, and knelt with them in prayer. 
And I came to love the German people. Some 
of my dearest friends are on that side of the 
Channel. 

There is no homier home than the character- 
istic Christian German home. And there, too, 
I learned something of aggressive Prussian 
militarism, at least enough to hate it with all 
my soul and to enlist all my powers against it. 
But I have tried most earnestly to put away the 
personal side, and to see things as they really 
are, without partiality or prejudice or wrong 
passion as far as that is possible. 

The Essential Facts. 

And I want here to gather up, and get in clear 
outline the essential facts of the war. And in 
our next talk I want to try to get at a fair com- 
prehensive interpretation of those facts. 

When the war broke out, we all said thought- 
lessly, without much measuring of words, that 
it was the worst of all wars. And as tense weeks 
grew into anxious months and into face-wrin- 
kling, hair-whiting years, we found ourselves 
saying very thoughtfully and measuredly, "The 
worst war. ' ' 

It began small but moved fast. The cloud, no 



The World War Just Closed 23 

bigger than many another that blew away, grew 
quickly till all the world's sky was black, and 
all the world's life sucked into the wild storm. 
An irresponsible man's quick passionate act, 
another man's life swiftly ebbed out, little Serbia 
and giant Austria at outs — then gradually, but 
swiftly all the world engulfed. 

The active belligerents and the non-active in- 
clude every important nation of West and East, 
and many smaller ones. It has been easier and 
quicker to name those technically neutral than 
those directly engaged. And some of the neutrals 
have suffered from war conditions far more than 
some belligerents. Two great national revolu- 
tions, the Russian and the German, and three 
outstanding abdications, in Russia, Germany, 
and Austria, stand out in the mix-up of revolu- 
tions and the toppling of thrones and the falling 
of crowns. 

All six continents have been involved, reckon- 
ing Australia as the island-continent. Five of 
the six have been directly represented on the 
firing line. Three of the six, Europe, Asia, and 
Africa, have had their soil ploughed with shell 
and lead, and wet with precious blood. And 
a fourth, our own, has been subjected to violence 
traceable directly to the war, involving many 
lives and millions of money. All the seas of the 
planet have been the scene of fighting action. 

All the dominant races have been involved, 
Celt and Saxon and Teuton, Latin and Greek 
and Magyar, Slav and Turk and Mongol, Indian 



* 24 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

and African, and everywhere the Jew, not to 
attempt to name the minor racial subdivisions 
and blends. Turbaned Indians, almond-eyed 
Chinese, dark-hued Africans, bearded Russians 
and olive-skinned Portuguese, have fought side 
by side with French and Belgian, British and 
American. 

All the dominant religions have been included. 
Three class as Christian — Roman Catholic, 
Greek Orthodox, and Protestant. Moham- 
medanism, that strange mixture of Hebraism and 
heathenism, has been on opposing sides of a con- 
flict for the first time. And those classed as 
non- Christian or heathen, Brahmanism, Bud- 
dhism, Confucianism, Shintoism, Taoism, have 
been in the lists, not to mention the numerous 
minor subdivisions and blends religiously. 

The Christian has fought the Conf ucianist, and 
the Shintoist has fought with the Christian and 
against him. Catholic has been pitted against 
Catholic and Greek and Protestant and Brah- 
man. Greek Orthodox has sided with non- 
Christian and against him. It's been a pitiable 
mix-up, until the non-Christian world has been 
wondering about the Christian's claims to 
higher standards. 

The mix-up of forms of government has been 
curious. Absolute autocracy, and constitutional 
monarchy have worked with and against democ- 
racies. It's been interesting to note that while 
the autocratic principle has been supposed to 
strengthen military efficiency, yet it has been 



The World War Just Closed 25 

defeated by the democratic. The leader of the 
Allies, Great Britain, technically a constitu- 
tional monarchy, has a form of government that 
actually responds more quickly to the breath of 
popular expression than any of the technical 
republics allied with her. 

They used to fight only on the land and the 
water. But such limitations are quite tame now. 
It's burrowing under the earth now, and 
maneuvering under the sea, and battling fiercely 
in the upper air. And chemistry, that wizard of 
the sciences, has added a fearsome, hellish, un- 
canny touch. Napoleon has been quite outdone. 
His genius and campaigns made the world's 
military record up to now. But now they are 
quite left behind ; although it is a most striking 
fact that his strategy and teachings have been 
the ideal ardently followed on both sides. 

And has there been a war exceeding this in 
the personal bitterness shown? Cities have 
altered the form of their names to escape the 
contamination of their enemy's language. 
Royal houses have broken their long time lineage, 
disowned blood-kinship, and assumed new fam- 
ily names. And citizens and subjects by thou- 
sands have changed their names to get away 
from the hated suggestions of enemy affiliation. 
Family feuds are the bitterest. The heads of the 
two leading nations in antagonism are close 
blood kin. 

A peculiarly repulsive phase of the war was 
the inhuman, demon-like practices of German 



26 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

soldiers. They made war, not against men 
merely, but against the civilization of the na- 
tions attacked. The sacredness of womanhood 
and of chastity, of childhood, and old age, was 
trampled in the mire with ghoulish glee. The 
civilized world stood aghast. The commonest 
decencies of life were ruthlessly disregarded. 

Churches were desolated, homes destroyed, 
manufactories stripped of machinery and 
levelled, libraries and art galleries looted, bank 
vaults rifled, populations deported, prisoners put 
to hideous torture. And all this when no pre- 
tense of military necessity could possibly be 
pleaded. One could not credit the facts were 
they not so carefully and reliably authenticated. 
And the evidence constantly grows that it was 
done deliberately, planned for and initiated by 
the highest authorities. 

It is enough to make Teutonic faces burn with 
shame for generations to come, aye, human 
faces, that fellow-humans could sink so low. 
It may well be doubted if the common masses 
of Germany knew what was going on. The utter 
disregard of every moral consideration by the 
Germans could not have been more marked. 

And, if such things could be made yet more 
loathsome, it was in this that all this was 
accompanied by the use of pious phraseology. 
There was the persistent attempt to cloak all 
that was done under pretense of partnership 
with God. The shocking blasphemy of religious 
pretense made even worldly men indignant, and 



The World War Just Closed 27 

Christian folk sick at heart. And yet this fits 
in naturally with the true interpretation of the 
war, as we shall see later. 

One particularly bright light shines clearly 
out. That was the personal salvage work done 
among the Allied forces. Medical science, and 
Christian humanitarian effort as represented by 
the Red Cross, never made such records before 
for thorough whole-hearted intelligent and suc- 
cessful work, nor the home people in their un- 
parallelled gifts. And the results contributed 
incalculably to the victory. 

And no such service was ever done for the 
moral welfare of the men. It is to the never- 
to-be-forgotten credit of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association that so promptly, so efficiently, 
and so acceptably, they threw all the strength 
of their remarkably organized human machinery 
into alliance with governmental effort. And 
others quickly followed their noble lead. It is 
to be earnestly hoped that the ardour of such 
work will not dim the eye to the essentials of 
real Christian service, at once so simple and yet 
so radical. 

And the cost of the war! The various ex- 
perts are still figuring on estimates for restitu- 
tion. But figures are cold things at the best. 
The cost in lives, blotted out and crippled, runs 
into many millions. The cost in coin runs into 
billions many times repeated. And the cost in 
suffering — broken hearts and broken homes, 
wrecked lives, acidly embittered memories, and 



28 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

violent setback to civilization — this can never 
be told in figures nor words. 

How could neutrality be possible in such a 
conflict? The technical diplomatic neutrality 
that some nations wisely adopted for safety's 
sake has been quite impossible to men personally. 
In the earnest desire to limit the sphere of the 
war neutrality was urged upon us Americans, 
extending even to our thinking. But some of us 
wondered how it was possible, where a moral 
issue was involved. How could there be neu- 
trality where right and wrong were at stake? 
If we could make millions out of European trade 
why couldn't we consistently express our utter 
national repugnance at the gross immorality of 
the invasion of our little Belgian brother-na- 
tion, even though the technicalities were against 
such action? 

The Causes Apparent and Real. 

Let us take a brief look at the apparent causes 
of the war. From the first the German govern- 
ment insisted that they were fighting in defense 
of their fatherland. The common talk on that 
side of the Channel for years had been about the 
menace of English navalism. And the chronic 
conditions of unrest in the Balkans, and the con- 
stant undercurrent of intrigue in European 
politics, could be easily turned and twisted into 
an occasion to suit their purpose. 

Further, the imperial constitution gave the 
Kaiser the right to declare war only in defense 



The World War Just Closed 29 

of the country, not otherwise. So that pretense 
was held to strenuously. Of course it has long 
since been exploded into countless fragments, 
even on the banks of the Rhine and the Spree. 

Great Britain entered the war apparently and 
technically because the neutrality of Belgium 
had been violated. The Congress of Vienna in 
1815 had tied Holland and Belgium up together 
regardless of racial and religious and language 
differences. The insistence of Belgium on living 
her own national life had been approved by the 
Conference of London in 1831. 

And the five other nations immediately con- 
cerned, France, England, Austria, Russia and 
Prussia, had solemnly pledged themselves to 
observe strictly her neutral status. Her terri- 
tory was to be respected, and not invaded. Ger- 
many admitted that she had deliberately and 
brutally broken her pledge to suit her purpose. 
Technically, Belgium was defending her neu- 
trality, and England was keeping her treaty 
pledge. 

But one doesn't need to scratch the surface 
much to get at the real cause underlying these. 
Look first at the real cause on the German side. 
And here one is saved the trouble of expressing 
any personal judgment on the facts in the case. 
It is enough simply to quote a German, a Ger- 
man scholar and historian, Treitschke, dead some 
eighteen years before the war began. 

If the war finds embodiment in any one as its 
real genius and its deepest inspiration, it is not 



30 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

in the Kaiser nor von Moltke, not Hindenburg 
nor Tirpitz nor Ludendorf, guilty and respon- 
sible as these men are. It was in this man 
Treitsehke, whose intense spirit and genius lived 
again in the war. 

Heinrich von Treitsehke was born in Saxony, 
a blend of Slav and Teuton blood. He was tall, 
with a strong, fine face, straight black hair, and 
keen, dark, thoughtful eyes. His voice was 
harsh, due doubtless to his being stone-deaf from 
a childhood sickness. His speech was intense 
and abrupt, and marked with an unmistakable 
Saxon accent. 

When he lectured, as he did every winter at 
the Berlin University for years, his lecture hall 
was packed. All classes eagerly came, and 
hungrily listened through his long lectures. 
Royalty and nobility, officers and merchants and 
tradesmen, jostled elbows democratically and 
good-naturedly to hear this intense Saxon ad- 
vocate of Prussian supremacy. 

I need quote only a few sentences from his 
lips, quoting freely. They will sound blunt and 
even brutal in English but not as terse and 
blunt as in his own Saxon-accented German, 
made more emphatic by his harsh voice. He 
would say repeatedly, " England has stolen a 
fourth to a third of the surface of the earth." 
He hated England bitterly, and made no bones 
of his hatred. "We had as good a right to it 
as she, ' ' he would say. 

"We ought to have taken it. We ought to go 



The World War Just Closed 31 

and take it. We must do it. For the world's 
good, we must take it. We are the world's 
natural leaders." Year in, and year out, for 
over twenty years Treitschke dinned this into 
German ears, with all the burning intensity of 
his intense spirit. The real cause of the war 
cannot be stated so well and so briefly as in this 
German's own words. 

On the other side, England was fighting for 
her world-leadership and for her life, her free 
national life. And right well the English 
leaders knew it. The attack on Paris through 
Belgium was an attack aimed at the heart of 
London. And, instantly, the astute statesmen 
of London so recognized it. It is said that the 
common remark of the inner German circle had 
been, with variations, " Three weeks to Paris; 
three months to London; three years to New 
York!" 

Great Britain has been the world's leader for 
generations. In high ideals of civilization in- 
sisted upon, in world movement, in trade, in 
prompt vigorous action when action was needed, 
she has been recognized as the world's earnest, 
insistent, aggressive leader. It has been a 
growing world leadership since the new world 
life opened up. 

The venturesome Spaniard who discovered the 
American Continent did far more. He opened 
the doors of a new world life. The center of 
trade that had swirled about the Mediterranean 
swung to the Atlantic, and then slowly to the 



32 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

Pacific. There came a new world consciousness, 
slowly and yet really swiftly. 

Trade pushed out of the Gibraltar Straits 
across the Atlantic. And, from the first, Great 
Britain forged to the front as world leader, not 
merely in trade, but in ideals. Now Britain 
was fighting for her world leadership. She 
poured out blood and coin for her ideals and for 
her life. 

It is of intensest interest to analyze the victory 
that has come. It is of real value, immense 
value, to recognize clearly just how victory came. 
England's instant recognition of the challenge 
to France as meant for herself was the first step 
of the victory that came so long after. The 
quick-as-a-flash sensing of the whole situation by 
the clear- visioned leaders of London was the first 
serious disturbance that threatened the German 
plans. 

Earnestly, patiently, even pleadingly, British 
diplomacy did its best, its sheer utmost best, to 
avert war. But all efforts were stubbornly re- 
pulsed and balked. It became clear that war 
was determined upon. Then, sharp, quick, the 
decision was made to ally England with France 
and make their cause one. This must rank first 
in the analysis of victory. 

Three times in three hundred years England 
had led in checking the power of tyranny that 
threatened to overrun Europe. In the end of 
the Sixteenth Century Philip II of Spain had 
caught the fever of world-dominion that has 



The World War Just Closed 33 

afflicted kings so much. And it was English 
pluck, under the leadership of Howard and the 
daring Drake that gave him the blow from which 
he never recovered. 

And Spain's attack on the liberties of Europe, 
both religious and political, was disposed of for 
good and all. And English recognition of God 's 
gracious help in the disastrous storm that meant 
so much, was perpetuated in the coins struck 
off by Elizabeth, with the inscription, "Thou 
didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered 
them." 

A little more than a hundred years later, in 
the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, when 
Louis XIV, grown fat in his arrogance, made 
the same attempt, it was the Grand Alliance 
under England's Marlborough that decisively 
settled Louis at Blenheim, and secured Europe 's 
free life for another century. 

A hundred and one years later Napoleon's 
fever-bitten ambition was settled satisfactorily 
for Europe so far as tlie water was concerned, by 
Nelson at Trafalgar. And a decade later he was 
finally disposed of on land by the Alliance under 
Wellington at Waterloo. 

And now a fourth attempt was made, a hun- 
dred years after Waterloo. It is interesting to 
notice that it seems to take about a hundred 
years for these attempts to come to a head, so far. 
And America and all the world has to thank 
God that England's sense of honour and her 
keen, quick sensing of the real situation led to 



34 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

such prompt action, and in time to such decisive 
victory. 

f But little Belgium, brave little Belgium, must 
*be given the hero-place. Her rare courage in 
putting honour first, and daring, actually daring 
to resist the greatest army ever gathered, and 
in the full flush of its bold initiative, gives her 
the hero-place. Her boldness gave Germany a 
check that thwarted her in the thing most vital 
to her plans, namely, lightning speed of move- 
ment, a check from which she never recovered. 

And France, outnumbered from the first, bled 
white, dripping red at every pore, never flinched. 
Two generations of her sons had been taught to 
expect just such an attack. And when it came 
France, spoken of commonly as giddy and pleas- 
ure-loving, made a new record among the nations 
for courage, sheer strength of spirit that re- 
fused to be whipped, against tremendous odds 
insisted on refusing to give up. 

And our own United States had a big share 
in the victory. We were a bit slow and late. 
Three thousand miles of isolating brine had cut 
us off from European politics. Our clocks ran 
a bit late by European schedules. Subtle Ger- 
man intrigue had slowed the governmental wheels 
in all allied countries to an extent that may 
never be fully known. 

If strong words, chosen with rare aptness, had 
been matched by strong deeds as promptly done, 
a lot could doubtless have been saved of time 
and blood and suffering. But that's past now. 



The World War Just Closed 35 

Let it go. We did come in at last. And when 
we did we came with a rush, full speed, American 
style. American numbers and American gold, 
American manhood and American intensity at 
its intensest, came in, and came in just in the 
nick of time. 

The Decisive Factors in the Victory. 

The decisive factors in the victory are worth 
noting carefully. The first factor to be named 
is the British Navy. It didn't have to get ready. 
It was ready. It always is. Silent, non-bluster- 
ing, prompt, efficient, almost painfully modest, 
at times, in statements of its own achievements, 
it went to work instantly. 

The seas of the world were swept clean of 
enemy efforts, with sporadic exceptions. Even 
that new venomous devil-fish of the seas, the sub- 
marine, was being choked slowly but surely be- 
fore the end came on land. One wonders that 
more has not been said about the victory of the 
seas running through those first years. It was 
almost a bloodless victory before the submarine 
began its work. 

The British Navy cleared the seas of the world, 
effectually blocked German ports, cut Germany's 
cable communications, and kept the German 
fleet tied up in her harbours. The one excep- 
tion, when that fleet did come out and then made 
a record run back, emphasizes the statement. 
The British Navy was a wall of fire round about 
the American nation and continent from the 



36 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

first. And when we came in with our splendid 
millions of splendid men, that navy was the chief 
factor in getting our men to their job. We 
could never have done what we did without the 
English boats. The various statements run 
around two-thirds as to the number of our men 
carried over in British bottoms to the scene of 
action. 

Coming closer to the day of decision, there are 
three factors together that stand out as de- 
cisive, — unified effort, Foch, and the American 
men. The little Welsh giant-premier of the 
British empire had the genius to see that the 
allied effort must be unified. He had the daring 
to put British men and officers under French 
orders, though it took rare courage and in- 
sistence to get it done. Absolute unity of ef- 
fort, men of different nations intermingled till 
the armies were one army in effect — this was the 
keystone of the arch that no German General 
Staff could budge. 

Then Foch was put in command of that unified 
army. One brain dominated all. And such a 
brain ! And, yet more, such a spirit ! Such in- 
tensity of spirit threatening its slender tenement 
by the fierceness of its flame. And then the 
American men, eager, fresh, daring, under able, 
fearless command, were put in the crisis place 
of the fighting, and at the crisis time. 

And chief of the three was Foch. Back of 
Foch the Generalissimo was Foch the man. In 
his teens he had witnessed the humiliation o>i 



The World War Just Closed 37 

his country at Sedan. And then it was that he 
began praying and began training, that some 
day that wrong should be righted. His life was 
one long preparation. 

Sixty-six years were packed into a few months. 
A lifetime was spent in getting ready for final 
events packed into less than a third of a year. 
Hard work, unsparing discipline, ceaseless study, 
thorough thinking, earnest praying, and an un- 
conquerable spirit, all under a masterful will, 
and brought to white heat when and where 
needed, and the steel-hard opposition was forced 
to melt away. 

His books on strategy had been translated into 
German a generation ago, and pored over and 
criticized, studied and anatyzed, and mastered, 
it was supposed. Then the Prussians had a 
taste of the man. And they found the man more 
than his books. They mastered the books, but 
were mastered by the man. 

It is of intensest interest to mark Foch's part 
in the war from the very first. The German 
plan of action is now quite clear. Breaking 
through Belgium and Luxumberg like a whirl- 
wind, their Left drove due south, planning a vast 
encircling movement that would bag the whole 
French Army and capture Paris. Bold enough, 
surely. 

But its success depended on every part work- 
ing. Belgium was the first serious check. 
Golden time was lost there. And Foch was in 
command in the south, in French Lorraine, and 



38 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

first held and then defeated the German Left. 
That was a serious blow. The whole German 
movement was imperilled. Then it was Foch 
that was sent, by Joffre's genius, to the critical 
place in the First Marne. And again he gave 
the Germans a stinging defeat. It was the sec- 
ond serious blow in France. 

Then the Germans made their drive toward the 
Channel ports. And again it was Foch, under 
Joffre's orders, driving hard all night long to 
get in touch with the British command, that by 
reinforcements and more, by sheer force of 
spirit, checked the enemy at the first great battle 
of Ypres. The enemy had reason to fear Foch 
from the beginning. They made his acquaint- 
ance at the very start. That final victory was 
piled on top of others, dating from the very first 
month of the war. 

The Biggest Factor. 

But the chief thing in Foch hasn't yet been 
mentioned. He is a man who prays. This is 
the tap-root underlying and fertilizing all the 
rest. Behind his life of discipline and study is 
his keen, fertile brain. Back of his brain, his 
spirit, indomitable, unbreakable. Back of his 
spirit is his touch of heart, reverent, habitual, 
intelligent, with God. 

A young Californian soldier has given a pic- 
ture which he has enshrined in memory as one 
of the most precious of his life. One day, some- 
where in France, he made use of his off-duty 



The World War Just Closed 39 

leisure to look around the little French town 
where he was billeted. He went into the old 
church. 

As he stood bareheaded respectfully looking, 
a small, slender, gray-haired man entered, with 
the insignia of a general on his shabby uniform. 
He was accompanied by an orderly. The young 
man didn't think of him especially at first, but 
then noted curiously that he went forward and 
knelt in prayer. He waited. Fully three- 
quarters of an hour passed. 

Then the small man rose from his knees and 
slipped quietly out to the street. The young 
soldier followed, and was startled to see sol- 
diers excitedly saluting, and women and chil- 
dren stopping to stare with awestruck faces. It 
was Foch. And this is said to be his constant 
habit. He begins and ends his day with quiet, 
unhurried prayer. And he commonly slips into 
a church wherever he is for the quiet prayer 
there. 

Ah! This gives the final factor, the under- 
most thing in these decisive factors, and working 
through them. Back of Foch, back of unified 
effort, back of Lloyd George insisting on the 
united move, was God! I am not dealing with 
the significance of the war here. That follows. 
Only with the factors. And without doubt this 
factor, God, the real God, counts and weighs 
biggest. 

From the first abrupt break over the Belgian 
boundary, it has been recognized that prayer 



4-0 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

has been a great factor. The praying spirit and 
attitude of Allied generals and leaders have been 
much spoken of. In October, 1914, when news 
was brought to Kitchener that Joffre was doing 
what seemed humanly impossible, actually hold- 
ing the Germans at the Marne, he is said to have 
exclaimed reverently, "Somebody's been pray- 
ing." 

That first, tense, tremendous year brought 
some bits from the battle-field that some of us 
like to remember still. The story of " the 
Angels of Mons" has been criticized a good 
deal. And it is quite possible that it may have 
grown as it passed from mouth to lip. 

But certain things about it stand, and stand 
out clear and unmistakable. Something hap- 
pened that touched and awed and inspired com- 
mon soldiers sheer outnumbered, without a 
chance, to resist, and stand, and fight, and turn 
the tide of action. And it was a something not 
scheduled in the usual fighting schedule. 

It was a something that changed the men who 
witnessed it, and affected their lives. A thin, 
wavering, then broken, line rallied and held 
against vastly superior numbers. Those men 
believed it was some sort of divine interposition. 
It was in the first crisis when the enemy move- 
ment was intensest and the Allies the least ready. 

Some of us like to recall the stories of "The 
Comrade in White." They, too, came in those 
first terrific crisis days. It was the French sol- 
diers that made the simple phrase. It was said 



The World War Just Closed 41 

that Christ Himself came to minister to wounded 
men, clad in white. Those who had seen Him 
were quite sure. 

The others, skeptical, ridiculing, were just as 
sure it couldn't be. The men were out of their 
heads. It was one of these skeptical men who 
tells of being wounded, and having fallen, bleed- 
ing badly. He saw a man in white approaching, 
and supposed he was one of the hospital corps. 

Then he was greatly startled to notice that the 
bullets that rained thick didn't affect this Man. 
He came on through them. The man couldn't 
believe his eyes. Then the Man in white was 
helping him to an easier position. Then the 
loss of blood stole away the soldier's conscious- 
ness. When he came to, the Other was still 
there. They exchanged a few simple words. 

A sense of awe held him, and yet there was 
no sense of fear, but a quiet peace. He noticed 
a wound in the Man's hand, and said, " You 
have been wounded, too." And the Other re- 
plied, with a breathed sigh, " That's an old 
wound, but it has been torn open afresh." 

You do as you like with such incidents. They 
impress me, not so much as chief evidence at 
all, but as colouring that fits in perfectly, and 
fills out naturally, the picture whose outline is 
reached in quite another way. 

Such in brief are the facts, some of them in 
mere outline. The interpretation which is the 
chief thing we are concerned with now will come 
in our next talk. 



n 

THE SIGNIFICANCE OP THE WAR 

Getting Your Footing. 

1 ' If there 's a God, where is He?" That tense 
question was asked me by a friend, a war corre- 
spondent. He stands high in his profession, his 
name appearing with his dispatches. He has 
seen service on nearly every battle-front of the 
war, if not actually all. 

From my personal acquaintance with him, it 
did not seem to me like a critical skeptical ques- 
tion, doubting the existence of God. It was 
rather the earnest question of an honest man, 
puzzled over the events with which he came into 
such close, painful touch. His letter spoke of 
the siege days in Antwerp when the Belgians' 
beseeching prayers filled the churches. And then 
the sharp contrast when his errand took him into 
South Germany where he heard the people in 
the churches thanking God for German victory. 
The question was wrung out by the experiences 
and sights he went through. 

That question has been asked no end of times, 

asked in sorest suffering, in dire extremity, in 

puzzled perplexity, and in cynical skepticism. 

Certainly the war has seemed an unanswerable 

42 



The Significance of the War 43 

puzzle to many earnest religious folk. The 
questions have come thick and fast. 

"Has Christianity broken down?" they ask. 
Individually it certainly has not broken down. 
Thousands in the thick of the fighting have given 
that answer. Certainly in principle, and in the 
power known by countless numbers, the answer 
is an emphatic "No." Yet, there's more to say 
here. There's a painful "yes" that insists on 
coming. 

Christianity has broken down, or, at least, 
something has broken down that bore that label 
in large capitals. Certainly there was not enough 
of the real article in Central Europe to prevent 
the hellish outbreak. And there wasn't enough 
outside to keep it from breaking out. The salt 
in common use had lost its saltiness. It didn't 
keep things healthful. The common conven- 
tional type of Christianity certainly has broken 
down. And it is a bad breakdown, too. 

The real thing hasn 't broken down, for a very 
good reason: it hasn't been tried. I mean, of 
course, commonly in the practical conduct of 
national affairs. Christ hasn't broken down. 
He hasn't really got in yet. And that is not 
expressing a critical personal experience. It is 
simply repeating a commonplace of Europe. 

The chancellories of Europe have been 
Machiavellian in their policies and manoeuvers 
and intrigues for generations, confessedly so. 
The Florentine statesman has given his name to 
the unscrupulous, unprincipled statescraft, des- 



44 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

titute of moral quality, that puts expediency and 
success above right. 

" Why does God permit it, with so much 
suffering by the innocent? " has been asked. 
Others have pointed to the personal blessings 
that have come to so many who under stress of 
imminent battle have decided for Christ. Yet 
on the other hand many have gone into rankest 
cynicism and skepticism. 

Much space has been given to certain good re- 
sults. The countless instances of bravery, the 
heroic deeds, the self-forgetful sacrifices, the 
utter abandon of all thought of self in the tense 
action and tireless work both in the armies and 
outside, all this sort of thing, so thoroughly and 
only admirable, has got marked emphasis in some 
quarters as being a sufficient good to justify the 
catastrophe having been permitted. War has 
even been exploited as valuable because it does 
arouse the heroic. 

Yet surely it becomes clear that it was not war, 
but the terrific emergency made by war that 
brought out these good results. The daring that 
throttles a mad dog, or stops a wild runaway 
horse, doesn't usually call out praise of such dogs 
and horses, but only of the splendid courage of 
the man who met the emergency at the risk of his 
own life. 

The emergency of being attacked did bring out 
most noble traits. All praise to those who threw 
themselves passionately into the breach. There 
is only contempt or pity for those who would not 



The Significance of the War 45 

meet such an emergency in whatever way their 
conscience permitted. The emergency was so 
plain, and the call so imperative. Yet common- 
place daily life is chock full of moral emer- 
gencies, never discerned, or, if noticed, calmly 
disregarded. 

And the wild vagaries of prophetic teachings 
of which the press has been so full have been 
enough to make the average sane man forever 
give all prophecy a wide berth, except where he 
may have had an inkling of some poised pro- 
phetic teaching. 

It 's been a time of confusion, earnest bewilder- 
ment as to why? Clear simple analytical think- 
ing and teaching have been at a very high 
premium, hard for common folk to get. And 
yet prayerful study has slowly made some things 
stand out clear and sharp. 

There's a bunch of nots that may help un- 
ravel the knotty puzzle. Perhaps it's hardly 
needful now to say that it was not Armageddon, 
though that question came so frequently. 
Armageddon has been used rhetorically for any 
great decisive moral conflict, It is used once 
in Scripture for the final battle between good 
and evil, God and Satan. Clearly this was not 
that. 

It is not a fulfilment of any particular 
prophecy. That is quite unmistakably clear. 
The general trend and characteristics of the age 
are indicated in certain prophetic sayings. But 
that is the most that can be said there. We are 



46 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

living in the prophetic gap. The thread of un- 
fulfilled prophecy is not picked up again until 
the Jew is renationalized. 

It clearly has not been God acting in judg- 
ment on the so-called Christian nations for their 
lukewarmness, and so on. God is not acting in 
judgment at present, happily for us all. The 
day of gracious opportunity is being patiently 
lengthened out. And it has not been God acting 
to cleanse His Church, except as it may be truly 
said that all emergencies and sore experiences 
are opportunities for those who will accept them 
as doors into a purer, stronger life. 

And it should be said very clearly and thought- 
fully that it is not sl part of God's plan. In- 
deed it has been dead set against God 's plan. It 
has been only heart-breaking to Him. God 
never needs bad to get His good done. He never 
uses bad. Good never comes out of bad. 
Though the emergency may call out the good in 
spite of the bad. 

And there is one other *'not" to put in the 
group, unhappily, though it pains one to be com- 
pelled to do it. It is not the last war, if the old 
Book of God is trustworthy. 

The Sovereignty of Man. 

But negatives are only half an answer, and 
sometimes a very tantalizing half. Isn't there 
more ? Yes, there are some things quite clear and 
unmistakable on the positive side. The whole case 
can be stated fully in one simple sentence. The 



The Significance of the War 47 

war was the result of man's use of Ms freedom 
of choice and action. 

It should never be forgotten that the initiative 
of action on the earth is in human hands. That 
has been a primary, dominant law of human life 
on the earth since Eden. God is very bold. 
Man is daring. The devil is daring. God is 
more daring than either, or both. He is so 
daring as to have made an experiment, a daring 
experiment, the greatest experiment ever made. 
An experiment is putting certain principles to 
the test of experience. The experiment, if 
successful, is an exposition and vindication 
of the principles. In this case the experi- 
ment is to vindicate both God and man, the true 
man. 

God made man in His own image. That is, 
He made him free, wholly, absolutely free, to 
choose and act as he would. And He never in- 
fringes on that utter actual freedom by so much 
as the half -blinking of an eyelash or a third the 
width of a narrow hair. 

God is a sovereign. Man is a sovereign — in 
the realm of his will. There he sits in imperial 
solitude choosing to do as he chooses. In this he 
is like God. It is the God-image. He is like 
God in the right of choice even when he is most 
unlike Him in the way he uses his right. 

This is fundamental. God has pledged Him- 
self to this. And when things go wrong, He 
uses His strength to restrain Himself from in- 
terfering, that so He may preserve to man that 



48 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

rarest gift. Love is sometimes strongest in its 
restraints. It reveals itself most in patience, 
feeling to the hurting-point but yet waiting. 

Could God have stopped the war? Yes, 
quicker than you can think, so far as mere power 
is concerned. But there is one thing greater 
than God's power — His love. Some of us need 
to revise our ideas of love. It is a pure, strong, 
intelligent, sensitive, controlling passion. 

God could have stopped the carnage and suffer- 
ing. But, for love's sake, He wouldn't, and He 
didn 't. It would have been infringing on man 's 
highest power, his free choice and action. There 
is abundant evidence that He went just as far 
as He could — to the very edge — to help, without 
that infringement. He helped only through 
human channels. 

The sailor must have a compass, and an 
anchor : the compass to steer by in an open sea, 
the anchor to steady by in the shallows. If he 
hasn't them, he drifts badly, and maybe worse, 
he may lose boat and life. We need compass 
and anchor to steer and steady by. For the sea 
of life is rough any time, and awfully rough 
sometimes. 

The anchor to steady by is — God's love. His 
love is above suspicion. It is unfailing. Never 
allow yourself to question it in any fog or storm 
or swamp. This is the one anchor that holds, 
the only one. 

And the compass to steer by, out on the sea, 
out of sight of land, in the tangle and confusion 



The Significance of the War 49 

of storm and action, what's that? This: man's 
free choice and action, given by God, never taken 
back, guarded by Him reverently, the very 
image of Himself. With that anchor and that 
compass, used, studied, a man can ride any 
storm, and is sure of safe port for both brain 
and heart. 

This is God's world. But things aren't going 
God 's way in it, that is, things, many things, that 
grow out of man's leadership and initiative. 
Things are going man's way. And that's the 
plan. Only man's way and God's were meant 
to be the same. The likeness was to be seen in 
their being the same. But they're not. Man 
has been using his free action in swinging away 
from the true way, the original way. 

God's sovereignty, rightly understood, doesn't 
mean that God is having His way. And it 
doesn't mean that the way things are going is 
as He planned and plans. It does mean simply 
this : that before the game 's done things will be 
righted. 

There is a very common idea of God that He 
drives His will through by sheer force regard- 
less of opposition. If you happen to get in the 
way of His will, so much the worse for you. 
That's the commonplace in the non-Christian 
world. And it's remarkable how much sway it 
has consciously or unconsciously among Chris- 
tian people, even the inner circle. 

God's sovereignty, His rule in the world as 
God, simply means, at present, this : that through 



50 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

the intricate network of human wills, God is 
working. He is preventing a disastrous smash-up 
that would be a wind-up. He is constantly 
wooing, shaping, restraining, steadying. It 
means, further, that, in the long run, His will of 
love will be recognized and done. 

Some day the lead of earth action, racial 
action, will swing from man's hands to God's. 
Yet even then there will be no infringement on 
man's individual freedom of choice and action. 
No, I must change that sentence about the lead 
leaving human hands. It won't. It'll be in the 
Lord Jesus' hands, the one true, full, really 
human human. 

But at the present time man is the leader in 
the action of earth. God is the Helper. We de- 
cide and act. He stands ready to help us in our 
action when it's right. With utmost reverence 
be it said, God waits on man. He does it de- 
liberately. That is His plan. The present is 
man's opportunity. 

And God means it shall not be skimped, but 
had to the full, clear to the tip-edge. He woos. 
He guides. He puts new strength in the human 
will that must decide, and does decide. His 
Holy Spirit guides our mental processes. He 
stiffens our will when it chooses the right in face 
of a stiff fight. 

God gave man a start. Eden was the start. 
The simple Eden picture holds in it the model or 
pattern of strong true life. It was a good start. 
It couldn't have been better. And at certain 



The Significance of the War 5 1 

great turning-points He has given a fresh start, 
indicating the true way. 

God chose a nation to be, not only His mes- 
senger to the others, but to be that messenger 
chiefly in the way it lived and did things. When 
that nation, not yet formed as a nation, was 
leaving Egypt's slavery, God gave a model of 
action regarding war, defensive war. 

They were attacked by Pharaoh's forces. The 
attack was overcome. The Egyptian militarists 
were overwhelmed. But it wasn 't done by phys- 
ical force. Force attacked, but force didn't 
defend. The defeat was by direct divine inter- 
vention. The leadership was human. The 
strategy used was daring. Moses went forward 
as he was advised to do. Through that human 
initiative God helped. 

That was the model of action as the new nation 
started off on its career. But when the Amalek 
attack came, Moses didn 't follow that model. He 
worked on another level. And God helped him 
on the level he chose. The same thing happened 
again at another turning-point, the entrance into 
their national domain. God gave Joshua the 
model of action for taking Canaan. The first 
city, Jericho, was taken by supernatural power 
alone, acting through the human initiative sug- 
gested to Joshua by God. Then Joshua dropped 
to the Moses level. 

This is one reason why Jesus came, and why 
He came as He came, on the human level. And 
He refused to be budged from that human level, 



52 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

in the subtle temptation of the Wilderness, and 
throughout. He was giving us a great fresh 
start. He was in Himself a living out of what 
could be done on the human level as originally 
planned. 

He repelled force without ever using force. 
And then He died, partly, to release new power 
for us. So we could do as He did, keep on the 
human level, keep sane, take the lead as we 
were meant to do, and have the power to reach 
the pattern He set anew. 

So in our personal lives to-day. Light is 
turned on the path, clear, simple light, soft, 
divine light. It shines noiselessly, unobtrusively, 
yet always clearly. And it may be always 
recognized, though perhaps almost unconsciously. 
And there 's always strength given to walk in the 
light that's given. If we step out and walk in 
the light and according to it, more light comes, 
further light, light on the next step. And with 
light unfailingly comes the strength to walk in 
it. And so on to the full noon of light and the 
full flood of strength. 

Satan's Latest Attempt. 

But now I want to turn from this common law 
of action to the concrete burning question of this 
war, and its significance. It can be said thought- 
fully that the war has a threefold significance. 
And first of all comes this: it was Satan's 
latest attempt to work out his ambition on the 
earth. 



The Significance of the War 53 

Satan is ambitious to rule the earth and be 
worshipped by man. The single case of the third 
temptation in the Wilderness (put second in the 
Luke account), will serve as a key to the long 
chain of related passages. But, be it keenly 
marked, he can do it only through human con- 
sent. 

For man was made undermaster of the earth. 
Man 's freedom of choice was Satan 's one oppor- 
tunity. How daring God was in giving man that 
great gift! But His love was pledged in the 
giving of it to help man be true in it. The Eden 
temptation, like that of the Wilderness, throws 
an intense lime-light here. Satan can do noth- 
ing without man's yes. 

There's a significant passage near the be- 
ginning of this old Book of God. It's really a 
key passage unlocking doors and problems all 
the way through the Book and through life. It's 
the bit about the attack of Amalek on Israel 
shortly after the departure from Egypt. 1 

Amalek attacked. Under Moses' instructions, 
Joshua organized the defense. Moses prayed. 
It was a hard battle, swinging now this way, now 
that. But victory came with the setting sun, 
for the man who prayed. At the close comes 
the interpretation. The last sentence reads com- 
monly, "Jehovah hath sworn: Jehovah will have 
war with Amalek from generation to genera- 
tion." 

That reading is got by the translators chang- 

1 Exodus 17:8-16. 



54 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

ing one letter in the Hebrew text to bring out 
the supposed meaning. The reading of the text 
underneath as it actually stands, without this 
change, is given in the margin of both revised 
versions, English and American. It is this: "a 
hand (is lifted up) upon (or against) the throne 
of God." 

That is to say, there was a conflict on in the 
unseen spirit world. It was regarding some- 
thing on the earth. The battle in Rephidim was 
a manifestation or result of the spirit conflict. 
There was actually an attempt being made 
against God's rule in the earth. How bold! 
How blasphemously daring! 

Israel and Amalek were as pawns on the earth 
chess-board. The great fallen prince was at- 
tacking behind and through Amalek. In this 
attack on Israel, he was attacking God. He was 
attacking God's plan for the race, that is to say, 
he was attacking the nation through which would 
come the Man who was to be the world 's Saviour 
and King. 

And that warfare, it is said here, would be 
renewed generation after generation. The blas- 
phemous attempt would be repeated. It has 
been repeated many times. And as one thinks 
into the war just closed, it becomes clear and 
clearer, and then quite clear, that it is the latest 
renewal of that old conflict. 

Germany, the leader of the Central Powers, 
is the modern Amalek through which Satan was 
renewing his old ambitious attempt. The bias- 



The Significance of the War 55 

phemous pretensions of the Kaiser, the bold dis- 
regard of moral consideration and obligations, 
the lawlessness practised to the utmost extreme 
possible, 011 sea and land, and actually gloried in, 
the horribly repulsive inhuman demoniacal prac- 
tices deliberately planned and heartlessly driven 
through, all this fits naturally in. They become 
telltale marks. The origin can be readily identi- 
fied. The Satanic finger-prints are unmistak- 
able. 

Satan always uses a human doorway in his 
activities on earth. Any one must. Even God 
used a human door. He sent His Only Begotten 
as a man. That first law, the law of man's un- 
der-mastery and leadership, stands. It is at the 
bottom of all action, Satanic and divine. 

The Scripture has some plain teaching regard- 
ing Satan's ambitions and plans. There's a man 
coming some day who will be Satan 's man. He 
will be Satan's Jesus. That is, he will personify 
and stand for Satan as perfectly as Jesus per- 
sonified and stood for God. Paul calls him ' ' the 
lawless one," and John, "the Antichrist." 
When Satan succeeds in getting that man 
then his supreme effort will be made to get con- 
trol. 

Some of his previous attempts at this are 
familiar. There's a long chain of them running 
through history. The unholy itch of tyrannical 
world dominion by sheer brute force has af- 
flicted world rulers through the ages. The story 
is a familiar one, running through the Pharaohs 



56 The Deeper Meantng of the War 

of Egypt, and the outstanding Babylonian, Medo- 
Persian, Greek and Roman monarchs. 

We don 't hear much now of Jenghiz Khan the 
Chinese Emperor of the Eleventh and Twelfth 
Centuries. But his vicious swing westward over 
all northern Asia, Persia, Armenia, part of Asia 
Minor, and Russia, threatened to ' ' deluge Chris- 
tendom.' ' The earlier Hun attempt under 
Attila, in the Fifth Century, is more familiar. 

.The Arab-Mohammedan move made savage in- 
roads into the southeastern corner of Europe. 
Its aggressive attempts, later, in the other cor- 
ner of Europe, the southwestern, up through 
Spain, in the Eighth Century, met its death- 
blow in France, at Chalons, happily for Chris- 
tendom. 

The later attempts of Spain heading up in 
Philip II, and of France under Louis of the 
record reign and record egotistical pretensions, 
are well known. And it is only a little over a 
hundred years since Napoleon ran amuck over 
Europe with such rare ability and aggres- 
siveness and success till he was finally disposed 
of. 

As one traces these names and attempts he 
finds one identifying mark in all that links them 
together. That is, the lawlessness, ruthlessness, 
deceit, lack of moral qualities, repulsive in- 
humanities, and magnifying of sheer brute force 
to the highest place. This reveals the common 
source. Devilish qualities reveal the devil's 
activities. And especially when so unmistak- 



The Significance of the War 57 

ably marked. This latest attempt has all the 
telltale marks. The bloody footprints are be- 
yond dispute. 

The common explanation in historical study is 
quite accurate so far as it goes. It was the 
tyrannously autocratic principle in government 
seeking to assert its dominance over mankind. 
And we enjoy tracing the slow victory of the 
democratic principle, rule of men by brother 
men as brothers. It's a pleasure to read of an- 
other sort of king in the pages of history, such 
as Louis the Ninth, and Alfred the Great, who 
devoted themselves unselfishly and tirelessly to 
the welfare of their people. 

This latest Satanic attempt was very delib- 
erate. It took time. It involved a whole nation, 
or rather a race — the German race. Its be- 
ginnings really run back to the Napoleon over- 
throw. The seeds of the plan of general con- 
scription followed were planted under cover, 
deceitfully, even before Napoleon was done for. 
The real vigour dates from Bismarck's rise to 
power, Bismarck the successor of Metternich as 
the reactionary apostle of Europe. 

The present generation of Germans have been 
under training from before birth. The nation 
has been obsessed or possessed with the demon 
of force. And the Kaiser, the head of the sys- 
tem, fully embodied in himself the spirit of the 
Antichrist as pictured in the Scripture — law- 
lessness, ruthlessness, shamelessness, and self- 
assertive ambition, wholly Satanic in its spirit 



58 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

and methods. If he were possessed by an evil 
spirit the practices he authorized would not have 
been different, and could have been worse only 
in extent, and degree, not in kind. 

As this interpretation became clear during the 
progress of the war it made one other thing quite 
clear too, that was the outcome. It was per- 
ceived that the Germans could not win. The 
time wasn't yet ripe. The stage wasn't yet set 
for the final attempt. The keystone of the arch 
of events was not in place. The Jew was not 
yet back and renationalized. 

A Question of Levels. 

This leads up to the question : Can a Christian 
fight? Well, it all depends on where the Chris- 
tian is in his Christian life, whether he is on the' 
Moses level, or on another level. The Moses 
level of action in war is to use force thoughtfully 
and prayerfully in defense, when attacked. It 
is fighting force with force, defensively, in de- 
pendence on divine help. 

All the warfare of the Israelites, from the be- 
ginning on through the whole record, is on the 
Moses level, with four exceptions. These ex- 
ceptions are Pharaoh's attack at the Red Sea, 
Joshua's taking of Jericho, the attack by Moab 
and Ammon during Jehoshaphat 's reign, and the 
attack by Sennacherib of Assyria in Hezekiah's 
time. In each of these instances there was vic- 
tory, by divine intervention, without the use of 
force by the Israelites. In the first two tfee 



The Significance of the War 59 

action was by divine initiative, in the second two 
by human initiative. 

Indeed in such a conflict as this the Christian 
must take a stand because he is a Christian. For 
it is a conflict between God and Satan ; wholly a 
moral issue at stake. This indicates the absolute 
necessity of an accurate interpretation of the 
war, a clear outlining of the issue at stake. In 
such a war as this one must take sides. To be 
neutral is to fail God. It is to be wrong. This 
was the curse pronounced against Meroz. 1 They 
failed to take a stand in God's battle. 

The real conscientious objector must line up. 
Whether all others do or not he must. That is, 
if his objections are based on Biblical grounds. 
And there are none other except those so based, 
directly or indirectly. And if he doesn 't actually 
fight, as, of course, he cannot if it be really a 
matter of conscience, he is under increased, 
greatly increased, obligations to do something 
else. 

And it is a something else of a very vital and 
positive and practical sort, And that is this, to 
live such a pure strong life that his mere pres- 
ence on the earth is a positive factor against evil, 
so recognized in the spirit realm. And he must 
put the positive force of that life into prayer, 
until the issue is decided. 

And a man so doing will find clear leading 
step by step in the circumstances that come to 
him. He will be given wisdom to conduct him- 
1 Judges 5:23. 



60 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

self in a really Christlike spirit. And he will be 
delivered from the one thing objected to, the 
actual use of armed force against any person. 

There is a higher level, God's level. It is 
clearly illustrated in the four exceptional en- 
gagements just named. It is further illustrated 
in Jesus' life. He insisted on living His life 
on the human level. He was repeatedly at- 
tacked. And He repelled the attack in each 
case without physical force, until He deliber- 
ately yielded to His enemies at the last. 

It is quite clear that there was no physical 
force used in the cleansing of the temple, but 
only the moral or spirit force of His presence. 
The whip of small cords was clearly used merely 
in starting and directing the movements of the 
stock, as in any cattle driving. Study of the 
actual text makes that quite clear. 

But — but, the nations attacked were not up on 
that higher level. And the Christian Church 
was not, and is not. Those persons who may 
have been were a small minority, practically a 
negligible minority in numbers. Moses was not, 
nor Abraham before him, nor Joshua after him, 
nor David. The nations attacked and the 
Church must needs meet the attack where they 
were. And so they did. God woos to the 
higher level, but He helps those who ask help. 
He helps them where they are. 

And, mark keenly, when a Christian does fight, 
how he fights, if he see clearly, and keep true. 
He does not fight for vengeance. Vengeance is 



The Significance of the War 61 

righting wrongs. That belongs to God only and 
exclusively. 1 And he is not fighting for re- 
venge. Revenge is "getting even" with your 
enemy. It is hitting back at a man simply be- 
cause he has hit you. That is distinctly un- 
christian. It belongs to the devil. It is radi- 
cally wrong in principle. The Christian, in fight- 
ing on the Moses level, is protecting himself and 
his against the attack. That belongs to man. 
And he is protecting against possible future at- 
tack in guarding the peace adjustments. 

That at once suggests the radical difference 
between offensive and defensive warfare. The 
offensive of course is always and wholly wrong. 
It is of the evil one. The defensive is essential. 
It is not only right but obligatory, whatever 
level a man be on. The man living on the God 
level must defend himself and his against attack, 
bravely and to the utmost, with spirit weapons 
used to the full. 

And this, too, answers the question of hatred. 
Can one fight without hating? Yes and no. He 
can fight with all the intensity of his being with- 
out hating personally the man opposite him in 
the trench, or on the line. There need be no 
personal hatred. But he cannot fight without 
the intensest hatred of the evil principle in- 
volved in the attack, and of the whole system 
that threatens his life and the lives and sacred 
honour of his loved ones and his country. 

And splendidly the Allied soldiers have shown 
'Romans 12:19 and parallels. 



62 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

their fine realization of the difference. The in- 
tensest, bitterest fighting by Allies has been fol- 
lowed or interspersed with generous humane 
kindly treatment of the enemy-wounded and the 
enemy-prisoners. One of the greatest surprises 
of the war was that experienced by the enemy- 
wounded and enemy-prisoners because of the 
humane treatment accorded them. 

This then is the first part of the answer as to 
the significance of the war. It was Satan 's latest 
attempt to work out his unholy ambition on the 
earth. This is fundamental. It strikes at the 
very root. 

But it does not cover all the ground. There's 
a further answer. In getting at it let me make 
an abrupt break It will seem like getting en- 
tirely away from the subject, but it will actually 
be driving straight home to its very heart. I 
want to ask a question: What will be the outcome 
of the present order of things on the earth? 
Will it simply go on endlessly, without any essen- 
tial change, except, we would all hope, getting 
better? 

There are three common answers to the ques- 
tion. One is this, that our Lord Jesus will re- 
turn to the earth in person and establish a new, 
ideal order of things called the Kingdom or 
Millennium. And this is commonly called the 
pre-millennial teaching. This was the view held 
by the Church of the first few centuries. It is 
held to-day by small minorities through Chris- 
tendom. 



The Significance of the War 63 

A second answer is this, things will get better, 
gradually, through the preaching of the Gospel 
of Christ, until an ideal order of things is 
reached in all the earth, and then at the close 
there will be a personal return of Christ. And 
this has been the dominant teaching of the 
Church for centuries, until quite recently. It is 
called the post-millennium teaching. 

The third answer seems to be the chief teach- 
ing in the Church of recent years. It is this: 
Christ will not return personally. He doesn't 
need to. He has returned and He is continually 
returning in spirit, in the higher standards of 
life, the nobler ideals, the finer humanitarianism, 
the broader brotherhood, and so on. I suppose 
this might be called the present-millennial teach- 
ing. 

I was brought up in a little Scottish Church in 
this country where the post-millennial view was 
taught. Then as a mere youth I heard the pre- 
millennial taught very simply by dear old 
Moody, and accepted it as simply without study. 
Then I got tangled. There were so many sub- 
theories of this teaching. There was such dog- 
matism, each right and the others not. And I 
threw the whole thing aside. I said, I will tell 
people about the first coming of Christ, and try 
to live so that if He does come I 'd be ready and 
be glad. 

Then after some years I was led to take up 
the Bible itself and try to find out just what it 
did teach. I had a mental house-cleaning of all 



64 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

books on that subject. I tried to forget all I'd 
read. The slate was sponged off quite clean, at 
least as clean as I could make it. 

Then I went at the old Book itself. Slowly, 
thoroughly, prayerfully, broodingly, I pushed on 
till I got through its pages. I was at the job 
about two years, all my spare time in between 
appointments. I tried severely to be wholly im- 
partial for I was after the results simply for my 
own understanding. At the end a few things 
stood out clear, quite clean cut and clear. There 
are countless questions I can't answer to my- 
self. But the few things stand out sharp, and of 
these I want to speak very briefly here. 

What will be the outcome of the present order 
of things on the earth? This: some day the 
crowds on the streets and roads of the earth will 
be startled to find the sun's light, maybe at 
noon, casting a shadow; a light becoming a 
shadow! Startled, they will instinctively look 
up to see why. 

It will be because of the shining of a brighter 
light across the sunlight. There will be a break 
in the blue overhead, and Christ Himself com- 
ing out of the heavens. The brighter light will 
be the light of His mere presence. I am speak- 
ing broadly here. The important details are 
touched in a later chapter. 

When He does come — no one knows when — 
four events will take place, a Church event, a 
Jew event, a world event, and a kingdom event. 

The Church event in a word is this : The break 



The Significance of the War 65 

in the blue overhead will be followed instantly 
by a break in the brown underfoot. That will 
be caused by the rising up out of their graves of 
all who have died, and who have had touch of 
heart with the Father and Jesus Their spirits 
that have been in the Father's presence will re- 
enter their bodies as they are raised. 

Then those of us who are living, and who have 
that same warm touch of heart with Jesus, will 
experience some change in our bodies. We will 
be caught up together with those raised up, into 
the presence of our Lord Jesus in the heavens. 
This, very briefly, is the Church event. 

The Jew event is this: The Jews will see the 
light. Every one will see it. They will be 
aware that this Jesus is coming down in a blaze 
of glory. They will instantly recognize that He 
was, He is, their Messiah, after all. They will 
be smitten in their hearts with deepest penitence 
because of their treatment of their Messiah. The 
Holy Spirit will act upon that conviction in the 
hearts. And they will become radically changed 
in heart, a race of believers in Jesus as their 
long-promised Messiah. In a word this is the 
Jew event. 

The world event will be a brief, partial, swift 
judgment on the system of evil in the world. 
Satan will be put out of action. There will be 
a wholly changed attitude among men toward 
Jesus. The kingdom event: there will begin a 
new order of things on this same old earth. The 
fundamental laws of nature and of life will re- 



66 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

main in force. Family life, growth, cultivation 
of the soil, industry, all this sort of thing will 
continue. But there will be certain radical 
moral changes. And this will continue for a 
long time. 

But when will this be? I don't know. No- 
body knows. The Book says plainly that we 
won't know, and can't. Any fixing of a pos- 
sible time is unscriptural. But the Book does 
say something very definite that bears directly 
on the matter of when. It says repeatedly that 
the return of Christ will be preceded by a crisis. 
It will be a tremendous upheaval. It will affect 
the life of the whole earth. And it will be 
greater in extent and intensity than anything of 
the sort that has ever happened. 

And this gives the clue to the further signifi- 
cance of this upheaval. The characteristics of 
the whole run of time from Christ's utterance 
up to this terrific climax, are clearly stated. 
Wars, rumours of wars, famines, pestilences, 
earthquakes, false religious teachers, defection in 
the Church — these have been common to every 
generation. 

This war has witnessed the fiercest intensify- 
ing of some of these characteristics since Christ 
talked of them on Olivet. Its extent has far 
outreached any previous event of the sort. It 
has convulsed the whole earth, practically. From 
where the Pacific washes the eastern shores of 
Asia, across Asia, through Europe, across the At- 
lantic, through the American continents clear out 



The Significance of the War 67 

to the western Pacific edge, and across the Pacific 
Ocean until the two edges touch, it has swirled, 
actually encircling the globe. Its action has swept 
from the frozen waters of the Arctic Circle in the 
north almost to the fiftieth degree of latitude 
south. That's practically as far as there is 
habitable land. In extent and in degree it is 
the greatest crisis the earth has known. 

The very stupendousness of it naturally sug- 
gests a working up toward a climax. This seems 
to give the second part of the answer as to the 
war's significance. It seems like a stiffened 
index finger pointing straight toward such a 
crisis as the Book says goes before the return of 
Christ, and the consequent change in the order 
of things. 

And, more yet, the war situation had in it all 
the elements that we are told will be in that 
crisis time. The people of Belgium and North- 
eastern France had a taste, a horribly bitter and 
entirely characteristic taste, of the time of perse- 
cution or tribulation that is said to be coming. 



God's Index-Finger . 

There are two things that can be stated posi- 
tively. One is this, the world situation at the 
time of the beginning of the coming crisis. The 
Book of God clearly specifies certain items in 
that situation. The Jew is back in his own land 
renationalized. That means, following their 
passionate national instinct, with the temple 



68 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

rebuilt and the old ritual of sacrifices in full 
swing. 

There seems to be a city of world shipping and 
world commerce in the valley of the Euphrates. 
There will be a coalition of European or world 
powers. A European coalition means a world 
coalition practically. Europe is the axis of the 
action of the earth. To-day Europe controls 
Africa as the dog the bone between its teeth. 
And Europe, with its working alliances, con- 
trols Asia. And quite clearly the axis has re- 
cently gotten good working connections with the 
American Continents. That coalition may be- 
gin as, or be, a purely practical administrative 
affair. That is not specified. 

There will be at the head of this coalition a 
man of dominating striking personality who will 
become a great leader of evil. And through this 
leader there will be a time of trouble, or perse- 
cution, or tribulation, exceeding anything previ- 
ously known. It will be marked by war, pesti- 
lence, famine and by religious persecution. 
Those five features of the world situation just 
preceding the crisis are definitely named. This 
is one thing that is clear. 

There's a second titling that is quite clear to 
everybody. There will be a new map of Europe 
at the signing of the peace treaty, the technical 
end of the war. There will be a wholly new 
world situation. And it is a possibility that that 
new world situation may shift, gradually and 
yet swiftly, into that five-featured world situa- 



The Significance of the War 69 

tion of the crisis, the transition crisis that goes 
before the return of Christ and the new order 
of things. 

But — but, there's an acid test to apply, an un- 
failing test, absolutely unfailing to one who ac- 
cepts the Book. That is, the Jew. The Jew is 
the acid test to apply to world events. When 
the Jew goes back to Palestine and reorganizes 
his nation, and when he makes a seven-year 
treaty with some king so authorized, that means 
certain things following. 

There will be a time of peace, armed peace, 
then abruptly a break in the treaty, and the be- 
ginning of the persecution and the crisis. Then 
the crisis after running its brief length, though 
it won 't seem brief, will be brought to a close by 
the personal return of Christ. In connection 
with His return there will be a quick series of 
epochal events, and then the new order in- 
augurated. 

And, I want to say very thoughtfully this, a 
venturesome thing to risk one's judgment upon, 
this: it is a working possibility that this will 
occur in our generation. That is to say, that 
the man of average age now living, and all 
younger, barring the usual accidents of sickness 
and death, will witness this tremendous climax 
and transition. 

I said a working possibility. I might say a 
working probability. I do say that to myself. 
That has grown to be a profound and deepening 
conviction. But I use the more cautious word 



70 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

here. Yet I must frankly state this merely as 
my personal judgment on the evidence in the 
case, just one man's opinion. 

But there's the test, the acid test by which to 
test any teaching, and any one's judgment — the 
Jew. His action is the unfailing test. The Jew 
is the puzzle of the historian and philosopher, — 
never yet explained by either. By all the laws 
of life he should have been wiped out racially 
long ago, through the mere circumstances of his 
surroundings. He has been scattered among 
the nations for centuries. 

That is the thing that invariably works to the 
obliteration of racial identity. But the Jew has 
never lost his identity. He doesn't merge. He 
won't. He can't, despite his own efforts. He 
is the miracle of God being performed constantly. 
The Jew is God's index finger. His mere pres- 
ence attests God's Word. He is a living certifi- 
cate of the certainty of this crisis coming, and 
the new order following, of which the Jew is the 
keystone. 

Wherever you meet or stumble across or bar- 
gain with a Jew, whether dealing in bonds on 
Wall Street or in St. Swithen's Lane or on 
Lloyd's, or dealing in bones on the Bowery, or 
old Jewry, or any Continental Judengasse — but 
never, be it marked, a down-and-outer at a mis- 
sion, nor seeking alms, except in some dire ex- 
tremity of Gentile persecution as of late in 
eastern Europe — wherever you meet a Jew you 
are reading a certified guarantee, God's living 



The Significance of the War 71 

human guarantee, that these tremendous events 
will work out. 

Whether you find him handing down the de- 
cisions of a great nation's supreme bench, pre- 
siding over a world-empire 's highest judicatory, 
organizing huge enterprises of world shipping, 
or the military transportation system of a great 
ambitious empire now fallen, or acting as the 
world's banker, or carrying a peddler's pack 
along the country highway, there you are looking 
at God's index-finger pointing to crisis and 
Christ and coming Kingdom. 

This is a second significance of the war. It 
is the world's greatest crisis pointing to a yet 
greater. 



What Does Count? 

Two women were seated side by side in steamer 
chairs on the deck of an Atlantic liner coming 
west. 1 They got to talking, as women will do, 
or men. The one was a little body with narrow 
lines in her face but a glow in her eyes. She was 
telling her story. Her home was in a country 
village in West Virginia. She had longed to 
become a member of a certain woman 's club, the 
Laurel Literary Society. 

But her social status wasn't satisfactory. 
Her father was the village blacksmith. And 

1 Taken from a magazine article by Margaret Pres- 
cott Montague. 



72 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

she was the village dressmaker. Her childhood 
schoolmates were in. But, try as she would, the 
hinges proved too rusty to her touch. And of 
course the denial only whetted her intensity. 
It became a passion. At last she thought if she 
could go to Europe — nobody in town had been 
to Europe — if she could go, and write a paper 
on her experiences, they'd want that, and she'd 
get in. 

So, she toiled and skimped and saved for years, 
held steady by her purpose. Then a sickness 
swept her savings away. But again she went 
at it. And at the end of some twenty years she 
had enough, and was off on the long planned 
trip. The party she was with got as far as 
Brussels. 

"Then," she said, "we were in it." "In 
what?" her companion asked. "In the ivar!" 
It had just broken out. All their plans were 
broken. Then she was included in a small motor- 
ing party with a messenger to Paris carrying 
official dispatches. They were hurrying along 
the road some distance out of Brussels when the 
motor stopped. 

The road was blocked. And the surroundings 
were very strange. They couldn't quite take it 
in. The fields of wheat on each side were beaten 
down. There were strange brown lumps 
scattered everywhere. Then suddenly on her 
side of the road a hand flung out of one of the 
brown lumps, and a voice said, "Water! For 
God's sake, water." 



The Significance of the War 73 

And impulsively she started to get out and 
get the man a drink. But the others earnestly 
stopped her. She mustn't think of it. It was 
too dangerous. It might cost her life. But the 
woman in her rose up intensely. She said, ' ' I 've 
got a cup, and there's a creek, and he says 'for 
God's sake, water,' and — and — he looks like my 
sister's son, and, anyhow, I'm going to get him 
a drink, whatever happens." 

And impressed by her earnestness they let her 
get out. Then the road cleared partly and the 
motor rushed on. And there she was, left with 
the wounded men. And all the rest of the day 
and into the night she was absorbed in her 
errand of mercy. Back and forth from spring 
to men, with only her little drinking-cup she 
went, cheering, comforting, easing positions, 
taking messages. 

An old ditty came mechanically to her lips. 
Then the tears stopped the humming of the ditty. 
Then she found one man who couldn't drink — 
he had no mouth left. Then her tears stopped. 
"They weren't big enough," she said; "only 
God's tears would do." On through the long 
weary night she kept up her ministrations. Her 
skirt was wrapped up for a pillow under a man's 
head. 

Once she stepped on something soft and yield- 
ing. She looked down — it was a piece of a man! 
And a great bitterness came into her heart. 
Why did God allow it ? Why didn 't He stop it ? 
Then softly she seemed aware of an unseen 



74 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

Presence with her. Be was helping her. He, 
too, was indignant, heart-broken. 

And something new broke out inside of her. 
There was a new something in there. And a 
great peace was in her heart as she toiled on. 
Then the morning broke. And the ambulance 
corps came. And then she had gotten on to 
Paris, and now she was on her way home. That 
was her story. And she sank back in her chair 
absorbed with the telling. 

And her companion said, unthinkingly, 
"Well, now you 11 get into the Laurel Society, 
won't you?" And the little woman with the 
narrow lines in her face instantly sat bolt up- 
right. And her eyes blazed until her com- 
panion's cheeks burned. "Oh," she said, "you 
don't understand. I'm not the woman I was. 
I've been made over new. None of those little 
things count now." "Those little things!" 
The plodding, consuming ambition of twenty 
years had become little things. 

And her companion, rebuked and awed, said, 
"What does count?" And the little woman 
with the deep narrow lines and the burning 
eyes said softly, yet tensely, "Only Jesus, and 
love, and helping folks." If the terrific emer- 
gency of this war may have done as much for 
some of us. What a shifting of perspective! 
What an upset of ideals! Aye, what a passion 
of love burning up old things and taking posses- 
sion of a life ! 

For, after all's said and done, the war is a 



The Significance of the War 75 

plea. By indirection, it 's a passionate, personal 
plea. It calls us to the life of surrender to the 
mastery of the Man who died. Then the flame 
that burned in Him will burn in us. It will 
burn up all lower purposes. It will burn out 
all lower fires. It will burn through into an 
earnest life with Him, and among men for Him. 

And such a life, be it keenly noted, hastens 
the climax of evil. It arouses and makes tenser 
the opposite. It hastens His coming who stops 
the crisis and begins the new order. For the 
coming of Christ isn't fixed by a calendar but 
by a condition. When things have come to their 
dead worst He intervenes. We help Him to 
come back. 

This is the third bit of the answer as to the 
significance of the war. 



Ill 

THE CRISIS COMING IN THE AFFAIRS 
OF THE EARTH 

Storm Signals. 

A crisis is a fork in the road. You may go 
one way and meet disaster. You may go an- 
other and find all well, the disaster avoided, and 
maybe better travelling. 

A friendly light shining at the fork helps you 
to avert the disaster, and take the safe road. So 
a red lantern is hung up at night at the danger- 
ous place in the city street. The city ordinance 
requires it. It's a friendly light. 

The government takes account of possible 
crises. Its weather bureau saves millions of 
dollars annually to the people. For it tells of 
storms coming, and men get ready. The provi- 
dent farmer in northern New England plans for 
the crisis of winter coming. The supply of wood 
and coal is put in, and the fodder for the stock, 
and repairs to the roof attended to. 

As the west-bound ocean liner on the Pacific 
nears Yokohama on the way up from Honolulu, 
about two days out, the sailors put everything 
in snug, trim shape. They know they are getting 
near "the big black hole," where they're sure 
76 



The Crisis Coming 77 

of dirty weather, and maybe a good bit of it. 
Even a squirrel lays away a good store of nuts 
for the cold nutless winter, and the migratory 
birds obey the divine instinct within and get to 
a milder clime till the cold season is past. 

There have come some terrific crises in men's 
affairs, each with its own outstanding char- 
acteristics; the English Revolution of the Sev- 
enteenth Century, the French of the Eighteenth, 
the Russian and the German the two latest, that 
have come as tremendous details of the terrific 
world crisis through which we have just been 
passing. 

And in every case these terrible upheavals 
have come as a complete, startling surprise to 
the crowds concerned. Always a few have read 
the sky, and told of the storm coming. But they 
have usually been looked at a bit suspiciously, or 
laughed at as being out of joint with their times. 
The crowds knew better — until the storm broke. 

It 's a friendly thing to hang a lantern out on 
the road on a dark night. But — but, it's a 
ticklish thing to do. People may feel so sure 
they know the road. There's the moon. And 
there's the sky's brightest starry lantern, faith- 
ful old Sirius. They can see. There's no like- 
lihood of a storm. And so they laugh, or smile 
in a superior way at the poor little lantern 
you 've been at such pains to hang out. 

So many have been mistaken in hanging out 
danger signals. Maybe you are. Though the 
old weather sharps are the first to get ready for 



78 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

the storm while the sun's still shining, and the 
crowd careless. Yet — yet the lantern man may 
be right. Jeremiah was. The terrific events 
that came proved him the one man of his nation 
who foresaw the storm that did come. 

Dear old Lord Roberts was right. Laughed 
at as an old man in his dotage, but with his keen 
practised ear to the ground, he knew the storm 
was coming. And he was right. Nobody was 
ready. But the British Navy, alivays ready, 
held things steady for the whole world till the 
Allies got ready. But how much it would have 
saved of precious blood and treasure and time 
and bitter memory if the friendly lantern had 
been accepted. 

We have just been through the world's worst 
crisis. The thoughtful man agrees to that lan- 
guage, the world's worst crisis. But it's over. 
We 're breathing more fully. Now the one thing 
on the boards is reconstruction. That 's the word 
of the hour, reconstruction. And the one thing 
the great world's statesmen have set their brains 
and their hearts on is that this shall never 
happen again. 

Our own President has done the exceptional 
thing in going to Europe simply to do his best 
to make sure that this sort of thing will never be 
repeated. And every true heart, American and 
British, Czecho-Slav and French, sends up a 
fervent prayer that it may indeed be so. And 
he would gladly back his prayer with his deeds 
and sacrifices. 



The Crisis Coming 79 

And yet — and yet, there's a storm-signal hang- 
ing out in plain sight. There 's a weather bureau 
that has been watching weather conditions very 
closely. There's a Weather Chart. And it says 
there's a storm coming, a bad storm, indeed the 
worst yet. But it'll clear after the storm, and 
then there's a long spell of good weather, the 
best weather the old earth has known since early 
Eden days. And it'll last so long that people 
will clean forget there's ever been a storm. 

Happily this isn't a matter of anybody's per- 
sonal opinion. It's wholly a matter of learn- 
ing liow to read, how to read the storm-signals 
hung out by the weather bureau. We are greatly 
blest in having a Weather Chart. Our gracious 
Father-God has seen to that. Our Lord Jesus 
has been at great pains to spell its meaning out 
plainly for us. It's a matter of learning care- 
fully the a-b-c of the Weather Chart language, 
and then spelling out accurately just what the 
Chart says. And to the learning of that lan- 
guage one may well give the best thought he 
has. 

In the fifth chapter of this little book, "The 
Evidence in the Case," I have tried to gather up 
just what the Bible tells of coming events. It's 
been a long, slow, tedious job to gather it out 
and put it together. I have tried to do it faith- 
fully and impartially for myself, to learn just 
what the Book actually says. And I am ear- 
nestly hoping that all who have read thus far will 
go through that chapter, broodingly and prayer- 



80 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

fully, with the open Bible at hand for constant 
examination. 

Everything in this chapter comes out of that 
chapter. There, book and chapter and verse are 
given for every statement. And there is noth- 
ing here which cannot be found there, with the 
full references. Here the thing is put in simple 
running shape for the busy man to get at at 
once. There it can be dug out more fully and 
verified at leisure. 

Gathering Shadows. 

Broadly, the fact to state is this : there is com- 
ing a crisis in the affairs of the whole earth. In 
sweep and in intensity it will surpass the crisis 
just past, though apparently it will not run so 
long. It will come through a great evil king 
coming into power. It will run. through two 
stages, the persecution of good by evil, and the 
short, sharp judgment upon evil by God. 

It will be ended by the personal return to the 
earth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great good 
King. And He will set in motion a new blessed 
order of things on this same old earth, which 
will run a long time. That is the whole story in 
a nutshell. 

And I want to put down here in the simplest 
shape just what the Book says about this. And 
first of all, notice the general condition of affairs 
on the earth at the beginning of the crisis. Cer- 
tain characteristics of the time preceding the 
crisis are spoken of. Naturally these will in- 



The Crisis Coming 8l 

tensify beforehand, as the crisis time comes 
near. 

There will be destructive wars, disturbing 
rumours of wars, epidemics of disease, distressing 
famines, and upheaving earthquakes. There 
will be great increase of human activity and of 
human knowledge. Activity means energy. 
Energy coupled with increased knowledge of 
life and of nature's laws and nature's resources 
will naturally produce certain results, — love of 
freedom, migratory movements, efficiency, in- 
ventiveness, means of getting about or transpor- 
tation, combinations of effort and interest, and 
vast accumulations of wealth. With wealth 
comes luxury; and with luxury breakdown of 
moral distinctions and of moral tone. 

It calls to mind the keen lines, 1 

"Here is the moral of all human tales; 
'T' j but the same rehearsal of the past, 
First Freedom, and then Glory — when that 

fails. 
Wealth, vice, corruption, — barbarism at last. 
And History with all her volumes vast 
Hath but one page! . . ." 

This last, the breakdown of moral tone, is 
definitely specified. There will be increased loss 
of morality among people generally. A disre- 
gard of law will be marked. On the part of the 
more disciplined it would come in a disregarding 
of the moral obligations of law, with a careful 

1 " Childe Harold's Pilgrimage." 



82 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

keeping within its technicalities; on the part of 
the masses an open lawlessness, a breaking away; 
from the restraints of law. 

There will be a marked loss of moral tone in 
the social contacts of the masses. Sexual con- 
ditions are always an unfailing index finger to 
general moral conditions. An intensifying of 
looseness in sexual relationship will indicate the 
general moral breakdown. Yet with all this 
there will likewise be an increased recognition of 
high standards of morality and of high ideals, 
and a living of the highest ideals by many. 

The two dominant characteristics will be the 
tendency to combination, and the tendency to 
the low moral tone indicated by a disregard of 
proper conventionality and of law. These are- 
indicated as the common characteristics of world 
affairs as the crisis draws nigh. 

The world situation, politically, is clearly in- 
dicated. There will be a ten-kingdomed con- 
federacy or league of nations. It will develop 
later into an eight-kingdomed confederacy. Its 
territory will be north of the Mediterranean Sea. 
There will be another great power lying mainly 
south of the Mediterranean. 

"Whether this latter is a coalition of nations or 
not is not stated, but it is of sufficient numbers 
and power to attack and cope with the northern 
league. These two will be in repeated armed 
conflict. At the head of the northern coalition 
will be a king of exceptional dominating evil 
personality. 



The Crisis Coming 83 

Apparently there will be a great city of world 
shipping and world commerce in the valley of the 
Euphrates, at or near the old site of ancient 
Babylon. There will be utter indifference among 
the crowds to the impending crisis. They will 
be going about their usual round of life absorbed 
in their affairs, business, social, and domestic, 
wholly oblivious to what is coming, and so taken 
completely by surprise. 

The Jew situation is also indicated plainly. 
The Jew race will have been preserved prac- 
tically intact up to the time of the crisis. This 
will be so in spite of its having been scattered for 
centuries among the nations, the thing that in- 
variably results in obliteration of racial identity. 
Now the Jew will be renationalized in Palestine, 
after the centuries of denationalization. The 
temple will be rebuilt, and the old system of 
sacrifices will be in full swing. That doesn't 
mean that all the Jews will be gathered there, 
for it is made plain that they won't be. 

But the Jew commonwealth will be reestab- 
lished. There will be a seven-year treaty made 
by the new Jew nation with the king of the 
northern confederacy. This is the point, when 
this treaty is made, at which the thread of Jew- 
ish history is picked up by the prophetic pen. 

The Church Situation . 

The Church situation is likewise clearly out- 
lined. There will be a marked falling away in 
the Church from the simple true faith. It will 



84 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

be so marked that it is spoken of as "the falling 
away. ' ' There will be a decided increase in the 
Church of false or untrue religious teachers, 
teaching other things than the Gospel of the 
crucified Christ, with crowds of followers. 

And equally marked will be the decrease in 
personal loyalty and devotion to Christ Himself. 
There will be a common attitude of rejection of 
the teaching of Christ's personal return to the 
earth. A mocking or scoffing, or open antag- 
onism, toward the subject will be common. 

Then there is something more very difficult to 
speak of because it is so heart-breaking, and 
difficult, too, because it will naturally arouse 
opposition and ridicule. Yet nothing could be 
more plainly stated. It is this: the Holy Spirit 
will withdraw from the Church as a Church. 
He will still remain in individuals who believe in 
Christ. But He will have withdrawn from the 
corporate Church. It will be a forced with- 
drawal, and done only at the very last possible 
moment, and then only with deepest grief on 
His part. 

Indeed it is His withdrawal that precipitates 
the crisis. There is now a restraint upon evil 
in the world. Evil cannot do now as it would. 
It is the presence of the Holy Spirit in His 
Church that puts that restraint upon evil. It 
is when that gracious powerful restraining pres- 
ence is withdrawn that the crisis comes, through 
the loosing out of evil. 

The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost for a special 



The Crisis Coming 85 

errand on the earth. He had been in individual 
men before. He came then as the Jew nation, 
God's messenger-nation to the world, had cruci- 
fied the Messiah. He came to make by His 
presence a new witnessing unit, the Church. He 
withdraws from the Church which He formed 
by His presence, only because He Himself is 
being ignored. In its life and practical affairs 
He will have been left out gradually as Leader 
and Master, until the leaving out is complete. 

Now it makes one sore at heart to repeat what 
the Book plainly says, that another spirit will 
have taken the place of the Holy Spirit. It is 
called the spirit of the Antichrist. Antichrist 
is John's title for the great evil leader through 
whom the crisis begins. It is a most significant 
title. God's only Begotten is the Christ. The 
Antichrist is the very opposite. He is the one 
opposed to Christ and to His coming to reign on 
the earth. 

John tells how one may identify the true 
Christian teacher, and on the other hand the one 
who (even though unconsciously) is swayed by 
the spirit of the Antichrist. The touchstone of 
the true follower of Christ is that he is under 
the sway of the Holy Spirit. The distinguish- 
ing mark of the Holy Spirit is a passion for 
Jesus the Christ. 

This is illustrated in the Book of Acts, which 
is distinctively the Holy Spirit book, marked by 
His presence and control. That book is fairly 
aflame with the Jesus passion. John's own Gos- 



86 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

pel tells what the meaning is to him. That book 
is all aflood with the passion for Jesus. 

Now this, John plainly says, is the touchstone, 
the one unvarying, unfailing test. The absence 
of this Jesus passion, or the opposite of it, re- 
veals the Antichrist spirit at work. There may 
be a flat denial of the distinctive deity of Jesus. 
There may be a subtle use of certain commonly 
accepted proper phrases but with a distinct 
thinning out or watering of their meaning. 

Or, there may be something even subtler yet, 
simply an ignoring of Jesus, a talking about 
God the Father with a studied ignoring of Jesus. 
There may be a failure to proclaim the Gospel 
of the Crucified, and instead a discussion of sub- 
jects quite proper in themselves and in their 
own place. 

This is the subtle spirit of the Antichrist. It 
is the very genius, the mark of identification 
of the Antichrist. This spirit spreads and 
strengthens till the Antichrist himself appears 
in person on the scene. As the crisis comes to 
its opening the presence of this spirit will dis- 
tinctly mark the life of the Church. 

Then the Church will naturally take on more 
of the conditions common in the world at the 
time. The increase in energy and knowledge 
will work out increased efficiency. There will be 
increase in a spirit of aggressiveness, with a use 
of the world's methods. There will be a spirit 
of get-together. Church union, which is the true 
state and spirit of the Church, will be highly 



The Crisis Coming 87 

thought of, and striven for, because it will make 
for greater efficiency. 

And yet with all these characteristics there 
will be an aggressive missionary propaganda, 
thoroughly organized, marked by the energy of 
the times. Naturally the missionary movement 
takes on the dominant colouring of the home 
Church. 



The Personality of the Antichrist. 

The situation in the upper spirit world at the 
beginning of the crisis is indicated. There comes 
the hour when the Holy Spirit withdraws to the 
upper world from His distinctive mission to the 
earth. It is at that time apparently, and per- 
haps because of the Holy Spirit 's presence there, 
that something happens in that upper spirit 
world. 

There is a conflict between Michael and Satan, 
with the hosts on each side. The initiative seems 
to be by Michael, as though to bring some old 
question to a decisive issue. Michael is the one 
spirit personality called "the archangel." He 
is spoken of as the one who stands for the Jew 
in that upper world. Satan up to this time has 
his headquarters in the heavens, somewhere be- 
low the throne of God and above this earth. 

The issue of the conflict between the two is 
decisive. And Satan is cast out of the heavens, 
and down to the earth. It is at this point that 
there comes to the front on the earth the man of 



88 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

strange personality who develops into the leader 
called Antichrist. These are the general con- 
ditions that are pointed out as prevailing as the 
time of the crisis draws on. 

The crisis itself comes through an outstanding 
evil king. His personality is distinctly excep- 
tional and outstanding, getting frequent repeti- 
tion and much space in the record. He is ag- 
gressive and domineering to an extreme degree. 
He has a remarkable eye, and a face notable for 
its stern, harsh expression. It is a bold, im- 
pudent, shameless, merciless face, not influenced 
by human amenities. 

The most striking feature, however, is his 
speech. It is blasphemous, peculiarly arrogantly 
blasphemous. Indeed this is said to be the im- 
mediate cause of his downfall. He is startlingly, 
defiantly self-assertive and egotistical, magnify- 
ing himself above all, even above God Himself. 

He is a cunning specialist in deceit. Lying 
and craftiness become a cursed commonplace 
under his influence and sway. He is an expert 
in all sorts of deception. Studiously skilled in 
entangled intricate sentences, sentences with 
tricky, crafty, double meanings. He is spoken 
of as a contemptible person, probably with refer- 
ence to this moral trait. 

There is a strange, uncanny phase of his per- 
sonality that makes one rub his eyes to see if he 
sees straight. He is not only in direct alliance 
with Satan, but he seems to be not merely hu- 
man, more than human, a blend of evil spirit 



The Crisis Coming 89 

and human being, or else a human being utterly 
possessed by Satan himself. 

And, further yet, of the strange sort, he seems 
to be a man who has had a previous career on 
earth, to have died, and now been raised from 
the dead by Satanic power for this specific work 
and time. This is specified repeatedly and defi- 
nitely. 

He is Satan's Jesus, representing him as fully 
as Jesus represented the Father to men. He is 
endowed with all of Satan's power for the time 
being. Such in brief is the personality of this 
terrible end-time king of kings, clearly outlined 
in the pages of God's Book. It seems quite 
probable that this description is as he has come 
to the full flood of his power and career. 

His career is as striking as his personality is 
morally repulsive. He begins small, increasing 
gradually yet rapidly until he becomes the abso- 
lute autocrat of the confederacy over which he 
rules. He comes out of the Kingdom of Greece, 
gradually extending his sway in three directions 
(from Greece presumably), the south, the east, 
and the land of Palestine. He is not chosen 
originally as king, but slips in by craft in a time 
of quietness. 

He becomes the head of the ten-kingdomed 
league of nations, which under him develops by 
force into an eight-kingdomed league. He is 
likewise spoken of as the king of the north, dur- 
ing the conflict north and south at the east end of 
the Mediterranean, indicating that the ten-king- 



90 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

domed league is north, or mainly north, of the 
Mediterranean. And this confederacy at the 
end seems to include the peoples of the Russian 
countries, who are singled out for special mention. 

He makes it a definite part of his propaganda 
to break down and undermine truth and honesty, 
displacing them with the rankest deceit and 
lying and lack of honesty. The grossest corrup- 
tion flourishes under his influence. For the 
brief time of his sway his success seems over- 
powering. The language used indicates that he 
runs riot, rides ruthlessly rough shod over all 
obstacles and seems undefeatable. 

The Jew seems a special object of his hatred. 
With all the intensity of his outstanding char- 
acteristics he conjures up the worst indignities 
for the newly formed Jew nation, and for the 
things dearest and most sacred to them, the 
temple and the system of sacrificial worship. 
He seems to vent his hatred of God against the 
Jews as though he recognizes them as God's peo- 
ple and distinctive representative. 

Strange as it may seem, his activity is said to 
extend to the upper spirit world. Many of the 
host of heaven are contaminated by his power 
and cast down and trampled upon, though just 
how is not made clear. It is distinctly said that 
his power is not his own. Clearly he is the one 
chosen by Satan as his representative, and en- 
dowed with all the power at his disposal. In 
him Satan is doing his best and his worst to 
drive through his own ambitions. 



The Crisis Coming 91 

The Career of the Antichrist. 

After coming to the head of the confederacy 
there are five distinct stages to his career. 

He begins as a man of peace, armed peace. 
He strengthens himself with the newly formed 
Jew nation by making a treaty with them for a 
seven-year period. The making of this treaty 
identifies the Antichrist to the thoughtful ob- 
server of events. Then he takes advantage of 
the treaty, by deceit and by attack, working one 
group against another, and by bribes and spoils 
of war, to drive through his purpose. 

Apparently that purpose is to be able to pass 
through the land of Palestine, as though the 
Jew nation were possibly a neutral or buffer 
state. For he at once passes through Palestine 
and makes an attack with great force on the 
power lying south of the Mediterranean, in which 
he meets great success. Drunken with his suc- 
cess he returns north through Palestine, and his 
heart is against the Jewish treaty as though of 
no further use to him, and so not to be allowed 
to hamper his plans. 

Then he makes a second attack on the south, 
but this time he fails. He returns north again 
through Palestine. Apparently filled with rage 
over his defeat and the failure of this second 
campaign, he vents his rage on the Jew. The 
treaty is abruptly and ruthlessly broken. He 
succeeds in doing this by means of intrigue and 
force among the Jews. 



92 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

And lie vents his spleen by stopping the sacri- 
ficial worship and by the desecration of the 
Jewish temple. This desecration is regarded as 
the very climax of blasphemous abomination to 
God. It would seem as though he seats himself 
in the holiest places of the temple, setting him- 
self forth as God and requiring that worship be 
offered to him. This is the point at which the 
persecution of the Jew begins. And while many 
are untrue, many others suffer a noble martyr- 
dom. It is a time of sorest stress. 

Then he meets an attack by the power of the 
south. He meets it with great forces, military 
and naval, coming "like a whirlwind. " And 
he has great success, but not complete success. 
Bad news reaches him from the north and east 
and he returns north with great fury. On his 
way he passes through Palestine and makes his 
headquarters at Jerusalem. And it is there that 
he meets his end with great abruptness. 

There is a distinct check to his power at the 
first phase of the personal return of our Lord 
Jesus. The persecution of the Jew ceases. And 
the visitation of judgments begins at this point, 
though the Antichrist is not slain till later. 

Then after this check he makes a final supreme 
effort, rallying all possible forces for the last 
great attempt. Then comes the crisis in his 
career. He is slain by the open appearance of 
Christ out of the open heavens. His career 
seems to run through seven years, most of these 
events occurring in the latter half. Such seems 



The Crisis Coming 93 

to be the personality and career of this strange 
evil king as outlined here by the Spirit of God. 

The Crisis. 

And now a look at the crisis which comes 
through this evil king. There are two distinct 
phases to it. And these two stand in sharpest 
contrast with each other. The first is the perse- 
cution of the Jew and of the Church by the 
powers of evil. The second is the exact reverse, 
a brief partial visitation of judgments on evil 
by God's direct intervention. The whole thing 
is spoken of as "a time of trouble such as never 
was since there was a nation even to that same 

time." 

It is of intense interest to note the principle 
underlying God's action in all this. It is sim- 
ply a withdrawal, a partial withdrawal. It is 
as though man's unspoken prayer, the prayer of 
action and attitude, is being answered, partly. 
God has been so much blasphemed or ignored, 
practically left out of reckoning so far as pos- 
sible. He never ignores any one or leaves him 
out of His unfailing, creative, sustaining care. 

Now there's a partial withdrawal. God sim- 
ply does less ; that is all. The persecution comes 
through the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit, a 
partial withdrawal, from the Church. The visita- 
tion of judgments comes through a partial with- 
drawal of the Creator's preserving, sustaining 
touch in the common life of men, and of the 
earth, and of the heavens. 



94 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

The immediate world situation just before the 
crisis begins is stated. There will be a series 
of armed conflicts at the Mediterranean Sea, 
swinging toward, and at, the east end, between 
powers lying north and sonth of that Sea. These 
will be on a large scale involving great numbers. 
Success sways back and forth. These actions are 
preceded by an attempted alliance between these 
two. The terrible king comes to the head of the 
northern power during a lull in these conflicts. 
He appears first as a man of peace, armed peace. 

The crisis is preceded and ushered in by a 
time of armed peace. The center of action dur- 
ing the crisis is the Mediterranean, chiefly the 
eastern end, and apparently extending to include 
the valley of the Euphrates. Just how far, terri- 
torially, the persecution extends is not specified. 

It would seem natural that it would be severest 
near the center of action. But the authority and 
sway of the evil king, so far as the power given 
him by Satan is concerned, is represented as be- 
ing world-wide. And the visitation of judgments 
seems to include the whole earth. 

The crisis begins with the persecution of the 
Jew. It is distinctly a religious persecution. 
It begins at Jerusalem. The sacrificial worship 
of the Jew is abruptly stopped. And the temple 
is desecrated, evidently in the most extreme and 
obnoxious way, both to the Jew and to God. 
Then follows personal persecution of Jewish 
men and women, many escaping suffering by be- 
ing untrue, and many suffering martyrdom. 



The Crisis Coming 95 

Later there comes the persecution of the 
Church. That is, it is directed against any one 
who will not obey the mandates issued. There 
will be a revival of emperor worship, an image 
being set up in honour of the Antichrist-king, 
and failure to worship will be punishable with 
death. There will be restraint upon trading; 
buying and selling being strictly limited to those 
who are loyal to the king. 

The persecution will be severe to the extreme. 
It will be a time of severe sifting. Naturally 
many who are in church membership but have 
no real touch of heart with Christ will balk at 
the persecution, and go with the outer crowd. 
Many will suffer a noble martyrdom. And 
many others who are true and have learned, 
maybe through sore experiences, to live by faith, 
will be delivered, being kept by divine power 
through the persecution. 

The story of the Third of Daniel will find 
many a duplicate. Refusal to join in the blas- 
phemous emperor worship will lead to the in- 
tensest fires of persecution, but through quiet 
supernatural intervention there will be deliver- 
ance, and so a wonderful witness will be given 
to the ruler and to the crowds of the reality of 
God and His power. 

During all this period there will be marked 
increase in demon activity, some of it under 
guise of Christian leadership. Men pretending 
to be the Christ, and so leading the crowds 
astray, will add to the confusion. More per- 



96 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

plexing yet to the crowds, untaught and un- 
discerning, will be the miracles wrought by 
Satanic power, bewildering in number and in 
kind, even to calling down fire from heaven as 
evidence of being God's messengers. A miracle 
of course merely means supernatural power at 
work. It may be of God, or, it may be of the 
devil. Archbishop Trench emphasizes this in his 
book on the miracles. 

It will be a time of sore perplexity to count- 
less numbers of church members, untaught and 
undiscerning. Yet there will be sure help and 
anchorage for all who will be true even to the 
point of suffering. There will be those who have 
learned to walk by faith, and who now remain 
true, and give a steady ringing witness to the 
truth. It will be a wondrous privilege to be 
witnessing in the midst of the church crowds, 
confused, bewildered, compromising and hiding. 

And there is special leadership provided by 
God for His people. There will be two remark- 
able men preaching the truth of the crucified 
Christ and His power to the crowds. They will 
be in Jerusalem. They will be dressed in 
mourning to emphasize their protest against the 
order of things going on. 

And they will be entrusted with supernatural 
power. All the attempts to kill them will fail 
until their work is fully done. And they will 
have power to verify their message by perform- 
ing miracles, restraining needed rain, causing 
plagues to come as Moses did in Egypt, and 



The Crisis Coming 97 

calling down fire out of heaven. It is probable 
that the Satanic miracles will be resorted to, to 
offset the influence on the crowds of these two 
men. 

There is a definite limit set to the time of this 
persecution. It will be for three and a half 
years, that is, twelve hundred and sixty actual 
days. At the end of that time these two leaders 
are killed, their bodies left lying unburied in the 
streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days. 
Then they are restored to life, and caught up 
into heaven before the eyes of the astonished 
terror-stricken crowds, who had been rejoicing 
over their death. 

The persecution is brought abruptly to a close 
by the first phase of the coming back of the 
Lord Jesus. There appears in the skies some 
evidence of His approach to earth. And then 
His own are caught up out of the tribulation or 
persecution which thus comes to its close. 

It should be noted that the day and hour of 
our Lord's return is not known and cannot be. 
There are certain portions of time named giving 
the relation of events to each other at the time, 
but nothing to indicate in terms of time the 
relation of these things to our own calendar. 

Our Lord's Approach to the Earth . 

And now a look at the actual personal return 
of our Lord Jesus to the earth. There are two 
distinct phases to His return. When our Presi- 
dent returns from Europe his vessel will be 



98 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

sighted first off the Nantucket Light, and some 
hours later it will be seen coming through the 
Lower Bay and the Narrows. And the wires 
will flash the word that he has arrived. Yet he 
will actually have arrived only when he steps off 
of the gangplank at the Hoboken dock. Natu- 
rally, it is something like that. 

In the midst of the persecution suddenly there 
will be some evidence in the sky of our Lord's 
approach in person toward the earth. Just what 
that sign is is not specified. It may be a light, 
very likely. It was a light above the brightness 
of the sun that smote upon Paul 's stupefied gaze, 
on the Damascus road, when Jesus appeared to 
him. On the Transfiguration Mount the chief 
impression the disciples got was of light. Jesus' 
face was like the sun, and his garments dazzling 
because of the light shining through them. 

But if a light, it will be a very unusual light, 
a supernatural light, clear, distinct, of dazzling 
splendour, instantly recognized as something 
different from sunlight. It will probably be seen 
clear around the planet, at night-time here and 
daytime yonder, twilight and dawn in between. 
The crowds everywhere will see it. Instantly 
there will be an unexplained sensing of the fact 
that this is something quite out of the ordinary. 
For with the light there will be a something else, 
indefinable, but felt by the crowds as something 
from God. 

Then there will be evidence to the ear, a shout, 
the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, 



The Crisis Coming 99 

a threefold announcement. The shout is the 
shout of a summons, a ringing call to action. 
The trump is also a summons to action as of a 
general giving marching orders. 

Instantly there are four distinct happenings, 
to four classes of persons: To the Jew, to the 
dead who have had touch of heart with God, to 
the followers of Christ who are living, and to 
the common crowds everywhere. 

The Jew will instantly recognize that this is 
Jesus coming down to the earth, the Jesus whom 
their race rejected, and was the means of putting 
to death, the Jesus who claimed to be their 
Messiah. There will come to them the intense 
inner conviction that He was, He is, their Mes- 
siah. All this will be through the touch of the 
Holy Spirit upon them. 

They will be radically changed in heart and in 
nature through that touch. The common word 
is "converted." They will become a nation be- 
lieving in and accepting Jesus as their Messiah. 
This seems to be true commonly of the whole 
Jewish people, some of whom will be in Pales- 
tine nationalized, and probably the larger part 
scattered, as now, all over the world. 

Then there will be a partial resurrection of the 
dead. At the approach of Jesus there will be a 
supernatural life-giving touch of power upon 
the dead bodies of all those who have had simple, 
true touch of heart with God. The break in the 
blue overhead will be followed by a break in the 
brown underfoot. And these will rise up out of 



loo The Deeper Meaning of the War 

the graves. Their human spirits, which have 
been in God's presence, will reenter their bodies. 

At the same moment something akin will 
happen to those living who are trusting the 
Father and Jesus Christ the Saviour. There 
will come to their bodies likewise a supernatural 
touch, making some radical change, so that as 
they have hitherto responded to a law of gravity 
toward the earth, now they will answer to the 
upper pull of a new law of gravity, spirit gravity. 

It will not be any special group or class of 
Christians, but all who in their hearts are trust- 
ing Christ. It will not be a matter of Christian 
attainment but only of trusting Christ who died 
for us. Not what we have done, but what He 
did. And these two groups, the raised-up and 
the changed, will have a wondrous meeting in 
the air as they rise up together toward their new 
center of gravity, the Lord Jesus. What a re- 
union that will be of loved ones with each other, 
and all with our Lord Jesus! 

As these are caught up into the presence of our 
Lord Jesus, the Man of Fire, the fire test of His 
mere presence will naturally at once affect them. 
Whatever there is in them of character, and of 
life, and of service, that cannot stand that test 
will become as ashes. 

Perhaps one thinks quickly of those lost at 
sea, and of those blown to pieces too small to 
find and gather, in the awful carnage of this war, 
and naturally wonders how they could be raised. 
The thing seems quite impossible. But it must 



The Crisis Coming 101 

be remembered that the whole movement is 
supernatural. The power of God is at work. 
And it gives emphasis to the preciousness and 
sacredness of these bodies of ours that they are 
raised again. They, too, our very bodies, are 
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. 

All the rest, the crowds everywhere, will be 
left on the earth amazed and stupefied by what 
has just happened. They will understand in 
some more or less definite way what has oc- 
curred. They will quickly recognize its meaning 
for them. They are "left" behind, while Chris- 
tians have been taken up and away. 

There will come to many a deep sense of peni- 
tence. They will know that they have been 
wrong in their attitude. Some will at once take 
a stand for Christ and against the Antichrist, 
and will suffer martyrdom. This is the original 
setting of the much quoted classical bit: 
"Blessed are the dead who die because of their 
loyalty to the Lord ; surely saith the Spirit, from 
this time they rest from their sore experiences; 
and their deeds in this crisis follow them. ' , ' 

These are the four things that happen at the 
instant of Jesus' approach to the earth. They 
happen at once, simultaneously. The whole 
movement comes with abrupt suddenness and 
swiftness. It comes like a flash of lightning out 
of a clear sky, as sudden, as swift, as open, and 
as widely observed. 

It comes to the unprepared crowds with the 
1 Revelation 14:13 paraphrased. 



102 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

intense disagreeable surprise of one finding that 
a thief has broken into his home and carried off 
his most valued treasures. This is the beginning 
of "the day of the Lord." It is the beginning 
of the end of "the day of Satan"; the full end 
follows very quickly. 

Our Lord's Arrival. 

This makes a new situation on the earth, a 
radically changed situation. The Church has 
gone, all those who have had heart touch with 
God and with Christ. The Jew is wholly radi- 
cally changed in heart. The crowds left behind 
are startled and penitent. The power of the 
Antichrist has had a decided check. 

Now there follows immediately on the earth 
the visitation of judgments, partial judgment, 
and judgment in principle on the system of evil, 
rather than upon the race as such. The earth or 
land, the sea, the rivers and the sun are affected 
by plagues or serious disturbances. What would 
commonly be called afflictions and calamities take 
place. 

An epidemic of very distressing ulcerous sores 
breaks out. The water becomes unfit to drink, 
causing great suffering and death among both 
men and beasts. The heat of the sun becomes 
intolerably excessive. The throne, or kingdom, 
or administration, of the Antichrist-king becomes 
affected in some distressing way which causes 
suffering, and checks its power. 

And the Euphrates River is affected, as though 



The Crisis Coming 103 

it were directly connected, as the center of 
operation, with the reign of the Antichrist and 
the system of evil. These visitations cause great 
suffering, they hamper the power of the terrible 
persecuting king. Yet it is striking to note that 
they do not produce penitence, but the reverse, 
blasphemous reviling of God who is recognized 
as responsible. The whole thing has a striking 
parallel in the plagues of Egypt. 

At this point there is a rallying of the forces 
of evil. It is a gigantic rally of all resources 
available against God, in utter defiance of Him 
and His power. There is a loosening out of 
demons in countless hordes. They are said to 
be loosened out at the Euphrates, as though that 
were the center of Satanic power. There is an 
effort, through demon activity, to rally the kings 
of the whole earth in a supreme movement. 

It seems to be against both the Jew and God, 
as though it was striking at God to strike against 
the Jew. A veritable passion of hate for the 
Jew seems to take uncontrolled passion of these 
leaders and forces rallied. They are said to be 
gathered at Armageddon. Yet the terrible 
climax of action, both human and divine, comes 
at Jerusalem. It looks as though the action in- 
cludes both places, with the final supreme effort 
at the Jew capital. 

The climax at Jerusalem takes the form of a 
siege by all the nations gathered there. The 
siege goes to the very worst extremity for the 
Jew, the city is taken, the houses looted, and the 



104 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

worst unnameable horrors and excesses with 
which we have lately been getting so terribly 
familiar, take place. It is at this point that 
supernatural intervention takes place. 

There occurs a terrible, outstanding day. It 
is a dark day. The sun becomes as black as 
black haircloth. The whole moon looks like 
blood. The natural forces that hold the 
heavenly bodies in place seem to lose their usual 
power. The stars fall, as would the fruit from 
a fig tree in a violent wind storm. 

This occurs around the whole earth, where the 
sun is shining and where the moon is lighting the 
night. As a natural result men are terror- 
stricken. The sense of terror is so great that 
some expire of sheer fear. There is the pos- 
sibility that this has been so in gradual degree 
for some time. But now it comes to a terrific 
climax in this dark day. 

Then at eventide of that day there comes the 
great climax of intervention. Jesus appears out 
of the open heavens over Jerusalem. It is recog- 
nized that it is Jesus Himself. But He comes in 
a splendour of glory impossible for words to tell. 
It is simply the glory of His own presence, but 
it is dazzling, blinding, overwhelming. Not sim- 
ply the light blazing out from His person, but 
the mere sense of His presence is overwhelming. 
All hair-splitting discussions about the essential 
deity of Jesus instantly vanish into thin air. 
The blinding Sinai experience would seem like 
a mere prelude to this, a mere rehearsal. 



The Crisis Coming 105 

The instant effect on the crowds gathered there 
is utterly overwhelming, indescribable. Kings, 
princes, generals, nobles, men of great wealth, 
together with the common crowds, will be down 
on their faces terror-stricken, hunting holes to 
hide in, and calling on the hills to fall upon 
them, and hide them from the righteous wrath of 
this Jesus-God whose glory is blinding their eyes 
and striking terror into the marrow of their 
bones. 

This visible appearance of Jesus in glory is 
the second phase of His return. It is His arrival 
in full. He comes to Olivet on the east of Jeru- 
salem. His feet touch the mount. His coming 
is attended by an earthquake unprecedented in 
violence and extent. With it will be a storm of 
lightning and thunder and rain and great hail- 
stones. 

There occur radical changes in the surface of 
the earth at Jerusalem. Olivet splits into two 
parts, moving toward the north and south, the 
line of cleavage running east and west, a great 
valley being created between the two halves. 

As He appears out of the open heaven above 
Olivet, Jesus will be accompanied not onty by 
angels but by some of the redeemed. Not by 
all, it seems quite plain, but by certain ones, 
" called and chosen and faithful." All are 
caught away at His first approach, for that is a 
matter of being redeemed as sinners by His 
precious blood. Now it is those who, having re- 
sponded to the call for salvation, have been 



106 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

chosen for service, and been faithful in obeying. 
These now have a part with Him in the day of 
His action. 

The mere presence of the glorified Jesus settles 
the great conflict. The Antichrist is slain, and 
his immediate associated leaders. The whole 
system of evil in the earth called Babylon is 
judged and doomed and falls at one simple 
stroke. Apparently the mighty city of world- 
commerce in the valley of the Euphrates which 
has been the capital or center, either actually or 
practically, of the system, is demolished in the 
earthquake. 

The Add Test. 

God's method of warfare is noteworthy. The 
leaders are killed by the sword that comes forth 
out of the mouth of Him who appears. The 
same One who created things by a word now acts 
in judgment in the same way. The immense 
numbers who are gathered against Jerusalem be- 
come terror-stricken; a confused tumult breaks 
out among both men and horses. There is an 
utter loss of self-confidence or morale. Discord 
breaks out in the ranks. They take to fighting 
each other. Pestilence breaks out, and a strange 
loss of vitality affects them. 

It is worth remembering here what has been 
said a little bit back, that the principle of judg- 
ment is simply the partial withdrawal of the 
divine creator power that holds things together 
and keeps life and vigour in man and beast, and 



The Crisis Coming 107 

in all nature. The judgment at this time is 
characteristically upon the system of evil, not 
upon men individually except as involved in 
the other. 

And it becomes of keenest interest to note 
that repeatedly we are told that the judgment is 
not merely upon the system of organized evil on 
the earth, but far more significant, upon the 
great evil prince himself and his hosts of evil 
spirit beings back of the system, and working 
through it against God Himself. 

The length of time involved in all this visita- 
tion of judgment seems to be seventy-five days. 
It is the time intervening between the two 
phases of our Lord's return, the sign of His 
approach and His full arrival at Olivet. And 
the same characteristic of abrupt suddenness and 
swiftness is noted in this climax of Jesus ' arrival 
as in the sign of His approach. 

Then after a brief time of readjustment, a new 
order of things on the earth is inaugurated. 
The transition period covers about six years and 
a quarter of ordinary reckoning. That is to say 
from the beginning of the crisis up until the 
beginning of the new order will be twenty-three 
hundred actual days. The word year does not 
stand for the same definite period of time 
throughout history. It is a variable term. And 
so the time is stated in actual days. 

This transition period falls into three parts. 
The persecution of Jew and Church runs 
through twelve hundred and sixty actual days, a 



108 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

little less than three and a half ordinary years. 
The visitation of judgments immediately fol- 
lowing runs through seventy-five days. Then 
there is a time of readjustment following, cover- 
ing some nine hundred and sixty-five days, or 
roughly about two years and nearly eight 
months of ordinary reckoning. It will again be 
noted that while these portions of time are spe- 
cifically named yet the day and hour of our 
Lord's return is not, and will not be, known. 

Such seems to be a summing up of what this 
Book of God stresses as a crisis coming in the 
affairs of the earth. I am not stating my per- 
sonal opinion regarding all this. My task is 
simpler. I am simply trying most carefully to 
sift out and put together what this old Book says. 
It's a matter of accurate reading of the Book. 
The chief thing is to know and to note just what 
God's Book does say. The conviction deepens 
with me continually that this Book is absolutely 
dependable as revealing God's purpose, and also 
as revealing what God sees will work out on the 
earth through the freedom of choice and action 
which He reverently, unvaryingly, insists that 
man shall have. 

Happily there is an acid test to apply to all 
this — tJie Jew. Even if a man doesn't believe 
the Bible, there's the Jew. You can't get away 
from the Jew, the fact of his existence. By all 
philosophy and reckoning the Jew should have 
been obliterated racially centuries ago. Home- 
less, denationalized, flagless, persecuted, scattered 



The Crisis Coming 109 

among all the peoples of the earth for centuries — 
this is the very sort of thing that inevitably tends 
to rub completely out all racial identity. 

But God's Word says he will be preserved 
until these things work out. Even persistent 
Jewish efforts at being merged into other nations 
have failed. His preservation and these events 
are tied up, and knotted together by the finger of 
God. The presence of the Jew in the common 
life of the nation to-day is God's certificate of 
the certainty of this crisis, and the blessed order 
following. 

The Finest Accomplishment. 

But when will all this be? No one knows. 
Our dear saintly friends who make calendars 
and fix dates seem to have missed the meaning 
of the Book. For it will be in such an hour as 
they think not, so spoiling all calculations. It is 
said repeatedly to be "at hand." And that is 
the word used centuries ago. 

Pretty clearly the meaning of that is that this 
is the next item on God's program for the earth. 
Man's opportunity is being lengthened out even 
yet. Our Lord is extremely reluctant that any 
should perish through failure to use the oppor- 
tunity. There is no intervening item on God's 
slate. This comes next when He decides to step 
in and straighten things out. The time is at 
hand. It is hanging over our heads, impending. 

There's another word like this that is worth 
noting as to its precise meaning. "I come 



l io The Deeper Meaning of the War 

quickly, 9 ' says our Lord four times in Revela- 
tion, the closing Book. And at the beginning of 
that Book it says "the things that must shortly 
come to pass." Repeated study makes it seem 
quite clear that in each case the meaning seems 
to refer to the manner of His coming, not the 
time. The word, swiftly or speedily, could be 
quite as accurately used. He comes with a 
sudden swift movement when He does come. 

Yet there is an index finger, to point the way. 
The Jew is God's index finger. When the Jew 
returns to Palestine and forms again the Jewish 
nation or commonwealth the finger is pointing 
steady and true. 

And when once back renationalized, he makes 
a seven-year treaty with a king at the head of 
a league of nations, then that index finger is 
stiffening and straightening out, pointing un- 
mistakably to certain events, and to the coming 
of the King. 

And the practical attitude of the simple- 
hearted, true follower of Christ is continually 
stressed. One word from our Lord's lips is 
typical of all. "But watch ye at every season, 
making supplication, that ye may get the victory 
in your personal lives over all the evil influences 
in the world, and so be pleasing and acceptable to 
Jesus when He comes. ,,1 

A through express train was held up in the 
far west by a heavy snow which blocked the 

*Luke 21:36 paraphrased to give the accurate 
sense of the Greek. 



The Crisis Coming ill 

track, some years ago. It was a couple of days 
before the way was clear. Happily there was a 
well-stocked diner. The passengers in one of 
the sleeping-cars got together and proposed an 
accomplishment meeting to while away the time. 

Each one was to tell his accomplishment, in a 
spirit of good-natured banter and jollity. One 
young man said he was a rising lawyer, very 
keen and wide awake, rapidly pushing his way 
up to the top, big fees coming in, and he ex- 
pected soon to be moving up to Easy Street ; and 
they all laughed as he boasted of his accomplish- 
ment. A young lady told that she was a rare 
musician. People were spellbound as she played 
and sang. So it went on through the little 
crowd, each trying to outdo the others, amid 
much merriment. 

Finally they had all spoken except one man. 
He was a farmer apparently. His spare face 
was deeply tanned and lined. His hands were 
those of a toiler ; his clothing plain. He had the 
appearance of a plain farmer who had prospered. 
The crowd looked his way. He flushed up a bit. 
He wasn't quite of their social status, and felt it. 

"Well," he said, "I'm just a plain farmer, 
used to the stock and the open plains. When I 
have to go to the city on business, I hurry 
through as fast as I can. It really scares me in 
town, the rush and the crowd, the noise and auto- 
mobiles, and all that. It sort of frightens me ; I 
want to get back home. 

"But" — he paused and flushed a bit more, 



1 1 2 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

then went steadily on in a quiet, low voice — ' ' but, 
wife and I believe in prayer ; we believe in Jesus 
Christ ; we kneel down nights and mornings and 
pray, and we believe God hears us. ' ' He paused. 
A hush had swept softly over the little sleeping- 
car group. Eyes began to glisten. And then 
a woman's voice softly began, " Nearer, my God, 
to Thee," and they knew there was an unseen 
Presence there. 

That was his accomplishment. It's the thing 
that'll count as the finest accomplishment, the 
biggest achievement, when the King comes. 
Just to live true in the simple, commonplace 
round, doing faithfully the day's tasks, with 
a warm hand for one's fellows, and the heart al- 
ways in fresh touch with the great heart that 
broke for all men, and for us. 



IV 

THE NEW ORDER OF THINGS 

An Earth-wide Chorus. 

There's a murmur of music around the earth. 
Low , deep, rich, clear, full, it never ceases. 
Through the roar of guns, the swish of the air 
artillery, the din of the trenches, it ever runs a 
pleading, hungry cadence. 

In Armistice days, at the Peace table, through 
the skilled interplay of statesmen earnestly 
planning a peace that shall not be broken, its 
expectant, eager, confident chording is never out 
of ear-shot of the hearts at work. 

Over the terraced, fortressed Rhine, up and 
down the swift Rhone, along the winding courses 
of the blue Danube, and the troubled Volga, the 
sluggish Nile and the muddy Jordan, the 
Euphrates and the Ganges, the Yangtse and the 
Congo, as by Thames and Seine and Potomac 
and Amazon, its eager, persistent notes never die 
away. It begins anew with every fresh dawn, 
pulses through the day 's heat and cold, and dies 
not away at twilight but persists on through the 
starry watches of the night. 

It unites all Christendom, Greek Orthodox and 
Latin Catholic, Protestant state Church and 
Free, the primitive Churches of the Levant and 
"3 



1 14 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

Abyssinia and Southern India, with Chinese 
Church and Japanese, and Indian. All alike 
plead the same bit of rhythmic prayer, Thy 
Kingdom come. 

It began nearly twenty centuries ago. And 
time has never been able to check or slow its 
rhythm or to still its plea. It began on the shores 
of the Center-of-the-earth Sea and has touched 
and sweetened every sea and shore, every valley 
and plain, clear to the earth's farthest rim. 

Its key-note was sounded by the Man who 
came to the earth on a special errand for His 
Father. So clear and winsome, so distinct and 
impelling, was that key-note sounded that no 
noise of war or trade or revelry has been able to 
drown out its sweet, wooing music. 

Yet all this music is only an echo. And the 
echo is always less than the original. Earth is a 
sounding-board that has caught the music of 
heaven, and keeps it sounding and resounding 
ever more. For the original music is in the 
heart of God and He never will be content till 
the symphony of His heart dominates all the life 
of the race. 

God has an ideal for man. I mean an ideal 
for his life down on this old earth. God is a 
practical idealist. He broods over ideals for 
man. And then He gives the wealth of His love 
and life and power to making the ideals real. 
This ideal thus far has been very costly to Him. 
It cost Him the thing dearest to Him. But He 
insists that it shall come true regardless of cost. 



The New Order of Things 1 15 

There's an early picture that tells the whole of 
God's ideals at a single glance. For simplicity 
and winsomeness that picture stands out above 
all others. God and man are walking together 
in a garden. Man's first home was a garden. 
It's a wondrous garden. There are fruits and 
flowers, trees and shrubs, singing birds and rare 
animals. And there's a wondrous stream of 
crystal-clear water flowing through the midst of 
the garden. 

And these two, God and man, are companions 
together. They are like each other. They talk 
and walk and work together. Indeed the man 
helps God finish up the work of creation, for 
things haven't been named yet. And things 
must have names. And so God lets man do the 
thing he can do. He suggests suitable names for 
trees and birds and all the rest, and Grod says, 
" Those '11 be their names." So they worked to- 
gether and talked together. 

It 's a wondrously homey picture of fellowship 
and companionship and service together. It was 
God's own plan, His ideal, the ideal He still 
carries in His heart. But sin broke the picture. 
God's highest gift to man, free choice, His own 
very likeness, had in it the possibility of trouble. 
It always has. The power of choice was used 
in making a wrong choice. That was the break. 
It was a heart-breaking break to God. 

But God has never lost heart. He doesn't, 
and He won't. Eden was hardly broken until 
the new Eden on the same earth was planned. 



li6 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

God put the Eden music in the human heart. 
And it has never been lost. Everywhere through 
the centuries there's been the weary sigh over 
life's disappointments, and the intense longing 
for the real thing. 

Literature tells the story. Early Norse folk- 
lore and Celtic and Arab, have pictured longingly 
an ideal future state of things. Greek sage, and 
Latin, have written the same story of coming 
days which never came. The tall, thoughtful 
Spaniard's venturesome discovery of a new world 
broke up the fondly cherished Atlantis ideal be- 
yond the pillared Gibraltar Straits, but it didn't 
stop the longing of men's hearts. 

Still the music of God persisted. And still 
men wrote and dreamed. More's "Utopia" 
simply led the way for a long file of followers 
up to this very hour. The Eden music still 
sings. God's ideal has its echo in the heart of 
the race, and in every human heart. It's a bit 
of sure prophecy of a day, the day that 's coming. 

God's Ideal for the Earth. 

God's ideal centered in Jesus. The original 
purpose in the coming of Jesus, centuries ago, 
was to set up a kingdom, God's kingdom, a new 
order of things, the Eden order. And the plan 
could have worked out then. But again sin, 
wrong choice, bad choice, broke the plan. For 
the plan hinged on man's choice, and it still 
hinges there. When the kingdom does come it 
will be through human choice. 



The New Order of Things 117 

Jesus knew, and the Father knew, of course, 
how things would turn out. And together they 
counselled to fit into the new changed situation, 
the broken plan, made by man's stubborn choice. 
They decided that Jesus would yield to hate, and 
so work out by His bloodshed the redeeming of 
man. But the first plan itself has never been 
lost sight of. It has been enriched and hallowed 
by the precious blood spilt, but never lost. 

And so Jesus must come back because the 
thing He came to do that first time has not been 
done. He must come to carry out the original 
plan. His word is pledged to it. It's a matter 
of good faith, the coming back again. 

There's an etching in the older leaves of our 
Book. Line after line it grows, from faint out- 
line to clearer and bolder. A touch here, a stroke 
yonder, bit by bit, it comes to view, a wondrously 
winsome conception of the ideal order of things 
planned for the old earth. 

No, it's not an etching. That's only black 
and white. This is a painting in colours, rich and 
brilliant, scarlet and gold, and blue and purple. 
It is done in oils, not to be rubbed out by wear 
of time, nor waste nor neglect. 

That picture comes to-day all afresh with 
peculiar attraction to this poor, old, blood- 
stained, gun-ploughed battle-field of an earth. 
It 's of a kingdom set up among men, in brotherly 
loving-kindness, marked by the strictest sense of 
right and justice and impartial fairness to all, to 
the utmost degree. There will be no use of 



l ] 8 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

force. The only means of influencing men will 
be by earnest, patient, brotherly persuasion. 

Broken hearts will be healed, prison doors 
unhung as being no longer needed. Broken 
family circles completed about the cheery fire- 
side, amid a time of great rejoicing. The calen- 
dar will always hang open at May. The poor, 
that big majority, has special repeated attention. 
There will be no hunger, nor cold, nor ill-clad, 
no unemployed begging for a chance to earn a 
dry crust, and no workers fighting for a fair 
share of their sweat-wet toil. 

I want to gather out just what this book of 
God does say about this Eden ideal of His. 
There is a fullness and definiteness of detailed 
statement, both surprising and pleasing. And 
then there is much that follows, logically follows, 
as the natural result of these statements. 

I want to put it down here as simply and 
clearly as I can. It will be noted again that I 
am not expressing any personal opinion but 
simply gathering out what the Book seems to 
say. All that is here can be found much more 
fully in chapter five of this little book. 

There is a great deal in that chapter not here. 
But there is nothing here that cannot be found 
there, with full references, book and chapter and 
verse. And it should be kept in mind that while 
there is a sharp, decisive, tremendous start to 
the new order of things, yet it will work out, not 
magically but gradually, following the common 
law of life. 



The New Order of Things 1 19 

The New Order of Things is a phrase given us 
by our Lord Jesus Himself. It will be unlike 
anything ever known, in certain particulars. It 
will come by the personal presence and reign of 
God Himself. But He won't be a stranger to us. 
It will be the same One who made man's home 
ready for him, that creative week back in the 
beginning of things, and who spent the day with 
our first forefather in Eden. 

We will recognize Him as the Man who walked 
among us on Palestine's hills and valleys as 
Jesus, sharing all our common experiences. He 
gave His breath to us and His presence with us 
in Eden, and His blood for us on Calvary: 
Now He comes to give His own presence with 
us again, in a new, intimate, wondrous way. 

The capital city of the kingdom will be marked 
by the visible presence of God, even as was the 
tabernacle in the desert sands. The Trans- 
figuration Mount, and the Forty Days after the 
resurrection give together a blend of what His 
presence will be like. 

In the one He appears in a dazzling blaze of 
divine glory. Yet He is conversing quietly with 
two men about things of interest on the earth. 
In the other He comes at unexpected times, 
talking, eating, building a fire on the sands for 
cold men, and cooking a fish for their hunger, 
and leaving them as He came. 

A Changed Jew Leading. 
Yet the kingdom or mode of rule is to be a 



120 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

Jew kingdom. The Jews will again be recog- 
nized as God's peculiar people. Their kingdom 
will be restored. Their present rejection as His 
messenger-nation is only temporary. The Gen- 
tiles or non-Jewish nations have their oppor- 
tunity as rulers now. That opportunity will 
have run to the full. Then the change comes. 
The times of the Gentiles' rule will be run out. 
The time of the Jew will have come. 

God Himself will reign, but He will reign 
through the Jew. Jesus the Son of God will be 
King of the Jews and through them of the whole 
earth. It will be a revival through Jesus of the 
old David dynasty. The age-long reproach of 
the Jew will be gone. He will be reckoned a 
blessing instead of a thing to be cursed. 

There will be a gathering together of Jews 
from all parts of the earth to Palestine. Even 
their old-time inveterate traditional enemies will 
now eagerly help them back. The Jew will be 
the first nation of the world, at the head of all the 
others. Acceptance of his leadership will be 
voluntary and eager. This indicates the wholly 
new spirit in the world. But it will be a wholly 
new sort of leadership, a non-military leader- 
ship. 

Jerusalem will be the Jew capital, and so the 
world capital. But it will be literally a new 
Jerusalem. There will be certain changes in the 
surface of the earth at Palestine through that 
tremendous earthquake. Splendid rivers will 
connect Jerusalem with the Mediterranean and 



The New Order of Things 121 

so with the commerce of the world. The na- 
tional boundaries will be extended to the orig- 
inal lines. 

There will be annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem 
from all parts of the earth. It will be to a 
harvest-home festival there. And this will be- 
come a touchstone of loyalty to God. Those 
failing to keep in loyal touch with Him will find 
their lives and lands seriously affected. It would 
be by the natural action of cutting themselves 
off from their source of life. 

The Jew will become the arbiter of disputes 
and differences among the nations. He will be 
voluntarily appealed to, and his decisions ac- 
cepted and acquiesced in as just and right. 
More yet, surprising as this will seem, the Jew 
will be regarded as the protector of other nations, 
even as man is woman's natural protector. He 
will be a blessing to all the peoples, so recognized 
and gratefully acknowledged. 

But — but, it will be a changed Jew, radically 
changed. It will be as the Chinese house-serv- 
ant expressed himself to his Christian employer 
who returned home after an absence. The 
servant had been lazy and slovenly and ineffi- 
cient. Now he was clean, eager and industrious. 
The missionary employer could scarce believe his 
eyes. He asked for an explanation. The serv- 
ant, who had been really converted during his 
master's absence, put his answer into char- 
acteristic colloquial Chinese talk. He said, 
"I've changed my bones and come out of my 



122 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

skin." It'll be as radical a change as that In 
the Jew. 

The change will be by God's direct touch, mak- 
ing them over new inside, so changing at the 
core everything needing change. The Holy 
Spirit will be poured out upon the Jew nation, 
individually and as a nation. The Jews will be- 
come deeply penitent, broken-heartedly penitent, 
for their past attitude toward God, their rejec- 
tion of Jesus their Messiah. An utterly new 
spirit will be in possession. They will be liter- 
ally born again in spirit, born anew, born from 
above. 

As a result they will be a cleansed, ennobled, 
holy people, truly representative of a pure, lov- 
ing God. There could perhaps be no keener 
statement than this, that what is commonly 
thought of as the characteristic Jewish trait, 
commercialism, selfish cut-throat commercialism, 
is quite gone. 

In its place will be a passionate devotion to 
God, and ideal sympathetic brotheiiiness toward 
men. The very atmosphere of Jerusalem and 
the Jew nation will be utter devotion to God and 
consequent unselfish brotherliness toward all. 
There will be a fine spirit of unity among the 
Jews themselves. 

The Jews will become characteristically a 
teacher nation, the teacher nation. They will 
be endowed with special teaching gifts, and will 
delight in using them. They will be distinctively 
a missionary nation. With all their natural in- 



The New Order of Things 123 

tensity, and versatile gifts, they will go out to all 
nations that have not been taught about the real 
God. That's the great majority, of course. 
Two-thirds of the race to-day, reckoning roughly, 
have never heard the story of the Father's love 
in sending Jesus. 

The great illustration here is Paul. Paul's 
spirit and his whole career from the Damascus 
road to the "hired house" of Rome and the 
headsman's block outside, make a prophetic pic- 
ture of the new Jew nation. The same passion- 
ate earnestness and undiscourageable persistence 
will drive the Jew out to tell the race of Jesus. 

The early chapters of Acts give another vivid 
illustration. The early Church of course is en- 
tirely a Jew Church. The brotherliness and un- 
selfishness, the joy and simplicity of daily life, 
the reckoning of their possessions in common 
that none might suffer need, the boldness in 
preaching Jesus even to persecution — these tell 
eloquently the new spirit in the new Jew. 

The presence and influence of the Jew will be 
to the peoples of the whole earth as the dews 
of Palestine in olden days. Evaporation from 
the Dead Sea filled the air with moisture. The 
chill air of frosty Hermon distilled the moisture 
with which the night air was heavily laden, and 
nightly the fertilizing dews refreshed the land. 
It will be like that. It will be like as the small 
warm rain of spring time touching the earth 
with new life till you can see things grow. The 
presence of the Jew will be like that. 



1 24 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

The Church's Part in the New Order. 

The Church will have a part in the administra- 
tion of this Jew kingdom. It is directly asso- 
ciated with the King, who rules over the Jew 
and the w r orld. The word Church is used for 
all who are trusting Jesus Christ as their 
Saviour, from all communions and from outside 
of all. 

It will probably be found to include all in 
every generation and every nation and tribe who 
have been true to God, and to all the light that 
has come to them, and so have been redeemed 
by the precious blood of Calvary, and united in 
the real Church. 

All these have been caught up and away at 
the approach of Christ to the earth. For the 
one thing that counts that day is the Blood of 
Christ. And that is the one thing that makes 
the real Church, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. 

But not all of these will be privileged to help 
in the service of the kingdom days. That is to 
say, all may if they will. Any one may have 
that blessed, coveted privilege. It is reserved 
for those who are called and chosen and faithful. 
Those who having accepted the call to salva- 
tion, have been faithful to the Master in the 
thing He chose for them to do. 

But please note keenly that there is nothing 
arbitrary, no partiality, about this. It is not 
chiefly a matter of rewarding those who have 
followed fully and faithfully. The matter ef 



The New Order of Things 125 

reward enters in, but almost unconsciously, not 
as the chief thing. These who have followed 
fully can serve. They have the needed qualities. 

Following simply, fully, when the road is 
narrow, and the thorns sharp and near, and the 
crowd going the other way, and the air chilly, 
and the sharp-edged stones cutting one's feet, 
and more of that sort of thing; that sort of fol- 
lowing grows the traits that are necessary in 
those who help in conducting the affairs of the 
kingdom. It's solely a matter of faitli fulness, 
joyous faithfulness, either through the actual 
tribulation, or through the tribulation experi- 
ence that comes to every one who will ring true. 

Now these are directly associated with Jesus 
the King in conducting the affairs of the king- 
dom. Their headquarters will be somewhere in 
the heavens, with Jesus, but their activity on the 
earth. They will have their changed bodies, 
their resurrection bodies. In these they will go 
at will as they are sent. 

Swift as thought, here and there, recognized 
and welcomed and loved, they will go. With 
their knowledge of the Word of God, and His 
ways, and especially with the fund of experience 
gathered in their former life on the earth, they 
will go teaching the word, steadying, strength- 
ening, comforting, and directing. 

Swift as thought can travel, they will be up in 
the King's own presence, then back to earth, 
here and yonder. It will be a wondrous min- 
istry. They'll be so grateful for the grace that 



] 26 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

held them steady in preparation for this most 
blessed service. The Forty Days of Jesus' ex- 
perience between the resurrection and ascension 
give the simple illustration of the power of their 
new bodies, and of their blessed ministry among 
men. 

Same Natural Laws. 

Now a little about the kingdom itself. The 
natural laws of nature and of life will, of course, 
remain as they are, unchanged. After that 
tremendous upheaval in the heavens and the 
earth attending Christ 's arrival on earth, things 
will resume their usual rhythm under the divine 
creative touch. The great basic laws of the 
heavens will remain the same, the laws that keep 
the whole solar system aswing. The sun and 
moon and stars will go their daily, nightly errand 
for men. 

But there will be certain beneficent changes 
seen, whether due to the heavenly lights or to 
the atmospheric conditions of the earth, or both. 
The sun will give a stronger, clearer light, 
though without an undue, unwholesome excess 
of heat. The moon will shine more brightly. 
The rhythm of the seasons will continue. There 
will be a fine tempering of the elements, the rain- 
fall and the dew and the winds, so as to bring 
only good results. 

There will result a renewed fertility to the 
soil, and the destruction and absence of poison- 
ous growths. The blight of drought, of un- 



The New Order of Things 127 

tempered heat, and destructive storms will be 
gone. Malarial swamps will change under the 
new light of sun and moon. All these are un- 
natural. They were not in God's Eden earth. 
They came with the break of touch with God. 
The curse of sin will be removed. 

The natural round of human life will continue 
as before. All the sweets of family life will 
continue, but in the finer atmosphere of purified 
love. Home life with its sacred privacies, the 
exquisite charm of the fireside circle, the con- 
stant miracle of growth and development, these 
will remain the very heart and center of all 
human life. The delights of friendship, of 
social intercourse, of music, of the beautiful, the 
cultivation of one's tastes and powers, and the 
rare privilege of service, these will know finer 
growths in the new moral atmosphere. School- 
ing, growing, learning, industry, exchange of 
products will continue, of course, for these be- 
long to natural human life. The delight of work 
will be discovered anew. It is only drudgery 
that is unnatural, too much work, more than 
one's share, and the absence of the finer motive. 

There will be the cultivation of the soil, of 
plant life and animal life. But there will be 
an intelligent, thoughtful interest in all of this, 
a due regard for the earth itself, the soil, and 
the future, and for all the people concerned. 
The cultivation will take all this into account, 
not simply individual interest, and not selfish 
ambition. 



128 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

And organized human life will be on the 
natural basis. The family is the unit. Orig- 
inally the nation was simply an extension of the 
family principle. The group of families about 
the original stem made the clan, the group of 
clans the tribe, and the group of related tribes 
the nation. So natural life will be organized on 
its own natural law, each nation living its own 
characteristic life. 

Geographical and racial and language affin- 
ities, and natural related interests, will control 
the national organization and life. The earnest 
attempt now being made in Paris by the states- 
men there, and the remarkable gathering of spe- 
cialists with them, to recognize these lines in 
adjusting boundaries is a working out of the 
principle that will have full sway in the new 
order. 

Certain Moral Changes. 

But there will be certain radical moral 
changes. There will be changes in the unseen 
spirit atmosphere, or surroundings, of our earth. 
Satan will be under restraint. He who started 
the Eden break, and did his best in the wilder- 
ness with the New Man to do his worst, he is 
under bonds. He, whom our Lord Jesus spoke 
of as the prince of this world, is out of action, 
absolutely out. 

By simple logical inference the demons are out 
too. They are included with their chief. It is 
interesting that evil demon activity is recognized 



The New Order of Things 129 

and freely acknowledged in non-Christian lands 
as not in Christian. The extent and intensity of 
demon activity in all of our life is probably not 
fully understood nor appreciated by any one. 

In the story of Job there is a clear statement of 
the inspirational power in human life of Satan 
working behind the scene, unseen and unsus- 
pected. War, that is, the wrong selfish attack 
of force upon others to satisfy evil ambition, and 
wild destructive storms, and disease, are directly 
traced to Satanic inspiration. 

Though Satan can do nothing without human 
consent, yet he is the inspiration, direct or in- 
direct, of all distinctively Satanic traits, — lying, 
deceit, dishonesty, selfishness, hatred, bitterness, 
envy, jealousy, intrigue, lust, and so on through 
the horribly long familiar list. The whole 
propaganda against God, questioning His love 
and faithfulness and direct interest, and sug- 
gesting criticism, suspicion, dislike and hatred 
of God, all this will cease. The mere absence 
of all this will make an incalculable difference 
in the moral atmosphere of the earth. 

Then on the other side, there will be a positive 
change in the character of men generally. There 
will be a new spirit in the race. The Holy 
Spirit will be poured out upon all men. The 
classical bit in Joel had a beginning at Pente- 
cost. It will have real fulfilment in the new 
day coming. The transformation of the believ- 
ing Jewish thousands in those opening chapters 
of Acts will extend to all. 



1 30 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

A spirit of love and consideration will take 
possession of men. Instead of selfishness will be 
a real brotherliness. Instead of cowardice and 
slavish fear will be courage and fearlessness. 
There will be a common recognition of God's 
unfailing tender love, and a deep reverence for 
God, and for God's Word, and for God's other 
children. A fine culture of the spirit will dis- 
place rudeness and boorishness. 

There will be brotherly help for the poor, the 
deficient, and the backward. And a detestation 
of the ignoble, the selfish taking advantage of 
others. It will be a penitent, changed, God- 
fearing world. That is to say, all this will be the 
blessed commonplace. It apparently will not 
be universal, but it will be the rule. And no 
doubt it will work out gradually, after the initial 
start. 

There is one divorce, at least, that will be 
nullified at once, the divorce between God and 
our common daily life. Satan secured that 
divorce long ago. It will promptly be declared 
null and void. And so all life will be changed 
by the happy reunion. And God will have the 
desire of His heart in the new Eden. 

A great discovery will be made, that love for 
God and love for one's fellows are the same 
thing. The theologian's emphasis on love to 
God, and the sociologist's emphasis on love to 
others will be out of date. Love for God work- 
ing out in love for others will be understood as 
the real thing. 



The New Order of Things 131 

Then there will be certain mental changes ac- 
companying these moral changes. There will 
be a new mental alertness and keenness. The 
veil will be taken from off the minds of people. 
It will be like the lifting of a fog. People will 
see and understand better. There will be quicker 
and keener mental processes. 

Dullness to truth, lack of discernment of 
moral issues, and of God's purposes in life, mis- 
understanding, ignorance, superstition, and 
prejudice, will give way to the opposite of these. 
These will all be moral changes in the mental 
realm, affecting the mental life. Individual 
gifts and traits and tastes and likes will remain 
as they naturally are, but be more full and free 
than before. 



Certain Physical Changes. 

There will also be certain marked physical 
changes of a blessed sort. There will be healing 
of physical ailments by divine power, blindness, 
deafness, lameness, dumbness, and all disease 
and weakness. There will be universal cessation 
of death, probably extending gradually. Death 
at the age of one hundred will be regarded as 
untimely. 

There will be a cessation of disease, and a 
marked increase of health and vigour and con- 
sequent length of life. Quite probably the great 
ages of the days before the flood will become 
common again. All this, with the cessation of 



132 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

war, will lead to a great increase in popula- 
tion. 

But under the changed conditions the earth 
will show what it can do in sustaining a large 
population. Its chance in this will have come. 
The Malthusian theory will be in the discard, 
with all its theoretical cousins. The soil and 
man will have a chance. God is right after 
all. 

But man will become again master of nature, 
as originally planned. Discoveries of its resources 
and power have come slowly and laboriously 
through the long years. As they have come life 
has been brightened and eased. The electric 
current alone has done so much. Now all this 
sort of thing will come more readily. It will 
come, of course, through effort and study. 
That's the delight of it. And so conditions of 
life will be eased and bettered. 

In all this we shall find that the Gospel days 
were simply advance days, sample days, of the 
kingdom, in part. The healing, the ordering of 
death to be gone, the mastery over storms and 
nature, the curbing of demon activity, the teach- 
ing and preaching, the feeding and binding up 
of broken hearts, all this was simply Jesus woo- 
ing men up to God's way and God's order of 
things. The fog was blown aside a bit, and a 
glimpse given of the Kingdom plan when once 
the King had sway. 

Naturally all this will make a decided change 
in the moral atmosphere of the earth. Some one 



The New Order of Things 133 

may think it is splitting hairs to talk about the 
moral atmosphere of the earth. But personal 
experience makes this quite clear. 

I remember returning one afternoon to the 
thickly congested portion of a popular summer 
resort where service held me for some weeks. 
We had had a long motor ride out in the pure 
country air. On returning the air seemed close 
and oppressive, though the early evening breeze 
had sprung up. 

At first it seemed as though it was merely the 
physical air that was different from the pure 
country air away from the dense crowds. Then 
the impression came and grew, and on reflection 
deepened into conviction, that the difference was 
in the moral atmosphere. The wickedness of the 
resort is a matter of common talk, though earnest 
effort has put a strong legal and moral restraint 
upon it. 

It was as though unseen evil spirit beings 
swarmed, and made the atmosphere oppressive 
to one's spirit. Repeated experiences in Euro- 
pean cities, and in non-Christian lands, not to 
speak of our own country, confirm the conviction 
of an evil moral atmosphere about the earth. 

Now the absence of the evil spirits from the 
chief on, and the marked presence of the Holy 
Spirit, will act doubly to change the atmosphere 
morally. And this in time will have an enor- 
mous subtle influence upon physical life and 
upon character. The mere absence of saloons 
and public houses, of opiate dens and gambling 



134 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

houses, and the like, will have an enormous in- 
fluence on the moral atmosphere. 

Changed Ideals and Circumstances . 

And the commonly recognized and accepted 
ideals of life will be wholly changed. There will 
be a new moral quality in all community life, 
instinct with a robust vigour. A spirit of 
brotherliness will dominate. While there will 
be the freest play to individuality, there will be 
an earnest loyalty to the interests of all, and 
especially the poor and neglected and deficient. 
There will be combinations in all activities, for 
that is normal, but they will be unselfishly whole- 
some in their spirit. 

And this will work out gradually and naturally 
certain changes in the common circumstances of 
life. The ideal of community life to-day is the 
city, commonly so regarded, though not by any 
means universally so. The cities of all the 
world have grown in size enormously of late 
decades. 

The opportunities and advantages and con- 
veniences of city life have been drawing the vast 
crowds. The blend of city and country life as 
the real ideal has been much sought after by the 
moneyed people who could have what they want. 
And it is everywhere being increasingly sought 
in city suburbs. 

It is interesting to recall the ideals common in 
the palmy days of Hebrew civilization. They 
were what we would call to-day a simple agri- 



The New Order of Things 135 

cultural and pastoral people. There were no 
great cities. The country was the unit of life 
and the ideal. And these were God's people, 
with what might be thought of as His ideals in 
this regard. 

In the idealized picture at the close of John's 
Revelation the center of community life is a 
city. But mark keenly, it is a garden-city. 
The Eden ideal was a garden. This Revelation 
ideal is a city. It is not built nor organized as 
are any of our great characteristic world cities. 

It would seem to blend the ripe culture and the 
conveniences of city life with the simplicity and 
naturalness and greater purity physically of 
country life. The first man was a gardener. 
The second Man, who came as leader, was an 
artisan, yet in a country village, probably with 
a bit of garden close to the dwelling. 

Now there are certain changes that we are sure 
of in city life. The city slum, our point of clos- 
est contact with the heathen world, will cer- 
tainly go. There will be proper housing and 
drainage, and ventilation and environment. 
There will be better food. For commercialism 
of the hurtful sort will not be tolerated. 

The unrestrained commercial instinct, for in- 
stance, that takes certain portions out of the 
wheat that so flour may profitably be stored up 
in immense quantities without danger of spoil- 
ing, will give way in the interest of better nutri- 
tion and health. And that will naturally make 
changes in certain productive enterprises. The 



136 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

foods that suffer deterioration by being chemic- 
ally prepared and changed to make a nicer look- 
ing, more salable, though less nutritious, some- 
times hurtful, product, will come under the ban. 
Excessive prices, and the manipulation of the 
market in their interest, will be done away with. 

Excessive forced cut-throat competition in 
trade will be displaced by a wholesome natural 
rivalry. Thoughtfulness and closer application 
will make better goods, and these will get better 
prices. And frugality will give advantages. 
The schools and home life will get countless chil- 
dren out of present-day factories. The hours of 
labour will be such as to permit home enjoyment, 
and personal culture and leisure. Wages will 
be adjusted fairly to a man's labour and skill 
and care. 

Under such changed conditions men will prob- 
ably discover and develop personal traits and 
power they had not known they possessed. And 
this will lead to an easier mastery of nature's 
hidden forces. Modern conveniences, lighting, 
plumbing, transportation, and the like, will prob- 
ably be more and better, and be within the reach 
of all, country and city alike. For increased 
knowledge of nature's laws and stores, and our 
fuller, better touch with nature, will bring us 
helps of which we haven't yet dreamed, though 
•prepared for our use by the creative hand. 

Changes in Nature . 
There will be certain changes in nature. We 



The New Order of Things 137 

don't know the earth as it came fresh from the 
hand of our Father. Oh, it's a beautiful world 
as we do know it. The starry twinklers in the 
wondrous blue overhead, the yearly miracle of 
spring, in swelling bud and catkin and the green 
blade out of the brown soil, the beauty of snow 
crystal, the far view over the hills and down 
the valleys — it's a rarely beautiful world. And 
we love it. 

But it's not as it was. The hurt of sin is 
everywhere. The geologist finds it in the rocks, 
the astronomer in the stars, the botanist in the 
flowers. The orchardist must plan to offset its 
ravages in his fruit, and the farmer in the soil 
and in stock breeding. It's a world of beauty, 
but a hurt, a scarred beauty. 

Is nature conscious of it? Does she suffer? 
There's a touching reference to this by the 
philosopher of the early Church who must have 
loved nature's beauty though he never refers to 
it. His sensitive ear can hear slow moaning of 
pain in the whole creation. His heart is hurt 
by the sense of pain in nature, but a prophetic 
pain, as though the birth-pain of a new, finer 
restored nature. 1 

The change in the light of the sun and moon 
will bring great changes in nature. Increase of 
light, with its healing balm, will dry up the 
swamp, heal the poisonous growths, give re- 
newed fertility to the soil, and to all good 
growths. 

3 Romans 8:20-22. 



138 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

And the lower animal life will share the 
blessed results. Beasts noted for ferocity and 
treachery and poison will be changed. Sin 
breeds antagonism. And antagonism breeds 
weapons of defense. And these uncontrolled be- 
come weapons of offense. Meat-eating beasts 
will take to a diet of herbs, so affecting their dis- 
position. There will be a cessation of cruelty 
to animals by man, and of danger to man 
from animals. A sweet fellowship will again 
spring up between man and beast and in all 
nature. 

Threefold Purpose of the Kingdom. 

The purpose of the Kingdom is intensely prac- 
tical, as is everything that God plans. It is a 
threefold purpose. It is first of all a time of 
opportunity. It will give opportunity to test 
God's own plan for the earth and for man. 
God's plan has never yet had a fair chance. 

Men will get really acquainted with God's way 
of doing things, and His wondrous plan for us. 
In this it will be a time of vindication. No one 
has been so much slandered and criticized un- 
fairly as God. Men will be having a real taste 
of the plan in the heart of God for things down 
here. 

Then it is a time of opportunity for man and 
for the earth. Man has been hampered by gen- 
erations of inherited tendencies of a not good 
sort. It is true, full true, and ever will be, that 
as any one follows simply and fully all the light 



The New Order of Things 139 

that comes, there comes unfailingly the strength 
to walk in the light. And there comes more 
light, and then more strength. 

Yet the race has been sorely hindered by sin 
in the world. The Kingdom time will be a time 
of rare opportunity for men on God's own plan. 
And it will be an opportunity, too, for the earth, 
for nature, to do her best, unhurt by sin and by 
sin-hurt man's ignorance and crude immaturity. 
The original Eden plan will have free swing, 
fullest opportunity for nature and man and — 
reverently — for God Himself. 

The second purpose fits in with this. It is to 
teach men about our great wondrous God. Men 
don 't know God. That 's the greatest bother, the 
chief hindrance. That's a bit of Satan's most 
devilish cunning. If men only knew God 
clearly, it would make the most radical differ- 
ence. Now it's to be a time of making God 
really known to men. 

The Jews will be the great teacher-nation. 
They will have a passion for making God known. 
With all their rare talent and intensity and ag- 
gressiveness, touched by the Holy Spirit, they 
will be utterly devoted to this. And the Church 
will have a big share from its headquarters up 
in the heavens. Every redeemed child of God 
may help just as far as he can in that blessed 
ministry. 

It will be a time of world-wide evangelization. 
Only that word will take on a finer, deeper, 
simpler meaning. The evangel is the story of 



140 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

God's love told out in terms of action, of sacri- 
fice and blood, told in the living language of 
Nazareth and Calvary, and the Third Morning 
After. It will be a new evang el-ization of the 
world till all men shall understand the throbbing 
heart of God. They will come to know that 
Jesus was God all gone to heart for men. 

There are two periods of world-wide evangeli- 
zation in the old Book of God, the present Church 
period, and the coming Kingdom period. The 
immediate objective of the Church is to make 
God's Jesus known to all. The Kingdom time 
takes up the unfinished task and makes a full, 
clean, well-done job of it. 

There's a third purpose which likewise twines 
in with these. It is to put down all opposition 
to God's blessed ride of love. Christ must reign 
until He has put down, and put out, utterly out 
of action, all contrary rule and authority and 
power. The only force used will be moral 
suasion, supplemented by love's help. 

The language used intimates that it will be a 
gradual process. God wants to win His way. 
He wants every man, of his own free choice and 
action, to cut with every un-Godlike thing, and 
to let Himself come into His own place in man's 
life ; and so everything contrary to God is to be 
abolished. 

The length of time the Kingdom runs is closely 
connected with its purpose. It is said to be a 
thousand years. This is spoken of in one place 
only, and stated there six times. It is interest- 



The New Order of Things 141 

ing that this phrase is the basis of the word 
millennium, most commonly used for the King- 
dom. 

The time at once suggests the chief thought. 
It is to be sufficient for a good try-out of the 
original Eden plan, and also for the fullest op- 
portunity to man under changed conditions and 
for the earth as welL 

It should be noticed that this coming order 
of things commonly called the Kingdom or 
Millennium is not the final thing. There is to 
be a loosing out of Satan again that men may 
make choice. The one thing God insists upon is 
personal choice, utterly free choice. He wants 
only what is freely given. 

Then there comes the final crisis, and the final 
decisive defeat of evil. Then occurs the resur- 
rection of all not raised before, the burning up 
of the old earth and heavens, and the making of 
a new earth and heavens And the final thing 
is not the Kingdom, nor the Church, though 
these have a hallowed memorial place. 

"Just Beginning." 

The final thing is God's own ideal, a family, 
a home. Men will be gathered about the Father 
as the family gathers about the fireside in the 
evening of the day. And they see His face. 
And His Name, that is, His character, His like- 
ness, is in their faces. 

The Book begins with God, and man in God's 
image, in friendly intercourse, in a garden. It 



142 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

ends with man gathered lovingly about God the 
Father in a garden city. They are closest 
friends, as only those akin and alike can be. 
The tree of life has grown into a grove of trees. 
God is Victor. The sacrifice of the Only Be- 
gotten was not in vain. Calvary has fertilized 
and enriched Eden. 

Yet in the midst of the Book's most winsome 
picture is something else, a something very pain- 
ful; but it's there, a lake of fire. It is kindled 
by free choice, choosing wrongly, and persisting 
incorrigibly in that choice. God's Book is 
faithful to the last leaf. 

Such is the picture in these old pages, bold in 
outline, clear in detail, rich in warm colouring. 
It will be noted how its parts fit together. It 
makes a simple, natural, symmetrical whole. It 
is sane and practicable and workable. It takes 
into account actual conditions and needs, and 
meets them. 

And even more, yes, much more, it gives a suf- 
ficient basis for the belief that the picture can 
be made a thing of life. The power and the 
pledge of God are back of it. It will be by 
direct divine intervention. 

It all centers in Jesus. He has never yet 
failed in anything He put His hand to, in old 
time Syrian days, or since. And wherever He 
is known there's confidence in Him. His Name 
pledges the thing. 

And so that world-wide prayer will have 
brought its answer. That murmur of music 



The New Order of Things 143 

through the ages and around the earth has found 
its antiphonal response in the reality of life. 
The Kingdom will have come. The New Order 
of Things will have begun. 

And if ever haunting fear stretches its crafty 
chill hand up on the thermometer of your hope, 
ask the first Jew you meet. He knows. You'll 
have no trouble finding one wherever you are. 
He can tell. He does tell, not with the eloquent 
tongue of his mouth, but the yet more eloquent 
tongue of his presence. 

The Jew is a perpetual miracle, God's con- 
tinuous miracle. Indeed as you think into it, as 
great a miracle as any ever done, if not greater 
and greatest. The tooth of time hungrily biting 
has made no impression on his racial identity. 
You may not believe in the inspiration of the 
Bible, but you are forced to believe in the racial 
inspiration of the Jew, plenary inspiration, 
through the direct supernatural touch of the 
Holy Spirit. 

Long ago time and Satanic hatred made a 
working agreement to get rid of the Jew, racially. 
They have done their best to kill him off, or, 
failing in that, to merge his identity as a Jew 
into that of other peoples. But he is stronger 
in numbers, and in racial consciousness, and in 
the action of life to-day than ever. 

The Jew is the keystone of the Kingdom arch. 
God has miraculously preserved him. He is 
essential to the plan. When the Kingdom comes 
the Jew is here waiting to fit into the keystone 



144 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

niche. The Jew's mere presence says, "The 
Kingdom is coming." 

The officer in command of a section of trenches, 
and a sergeant, were making their rounds during 
a comparative lull in the firing, "somewhere in 
France. " All at once the officer almost stum- 
bled over the limp form of a young bugler. 
"Done for?" asked the sergeant. "Yes," was 
the reply, "the poor fellow's evidently 'gone 
west.'" 

But he hadn't quite yet. There was a mo- 
mentary flashing up of the fast ebbing vitality. 
The ear caught the words spoken. The lips 
moved and the officer bent tenderly to catch the 
words: "Gone west? . . . yes, sir . . . 
but . . . not done for, sir . . . it 's only 
just beginning . . . I see . . . Him . . . 
and . . . and mother." 

Then a wondrous smile lit the boy's face, and 
then the head dropped back. Things had begun 
for him. Things will be "just beginning" when 
Jesus comes. 



THE EVIDENCE IN THE CASE 

The Atithoritative Book. 

A book is a judge. It is a tribunal. It makes 
decisions. It settles disputes. It gives a start- 
ing-point. It gives a common ground of agree- 
ment where there are differences. I mean of 
course an authoritative book, which is com- 
monly accepted as a standard. 

Experts have certain books always at hand. 
The lawyer has Blackstone and Coke, the physi- 
cian Gray, the merchant Bradstreet and Lloyd's 
List, the sailor Mahan, the soldier Wellington, 
the philosopher Kant, the historical student 
Grote and Green and Motley, the minister of the 
Gospel the Bible, and so on. The authoritative 
book becomes the starting-point, the working 
basis, backed by the expert's own experimental 
work which corroborates and interprets it to 
him. 

Then there come to be experts whose inter- 
pretation of the book is accepted by others. 
These experts are men of disciplined mental 
powers, of much study, keen discernment and 
impartial poise of spirit. They seek patiently 
and tirelessly to know and discern and to in- 
U5 



146 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

terpret impartially the meaning of the standard 
hook. 

The thoughtful man goes to his book. One 
must start somewhere. He must get his feet. 
He needs to know whatever there is that is abso- 
lutely dependable. He must protect himself 
against misunderstanding and resulting injury. 
Whether he's selling a big bill of goods, or pre- 
paring an important ease for the court, or trying 
to find how the belief and practice of his own 
time connects with those of past times and other 
nations ; or simply trying to do the higher thing, 
live an intelligent, strong Christian life, and be 
a true leader. 

The book connects him with the past. It puts 
him in working touch with other men of his 
particular world. A man can live only one 
generation of time, and be in one place at a 
time himself. And that's only one link in the 
long chain. If his judgment is to be reliable, he 
must get in touch with the facts that concern 
what he's thinking about. He wants the facts 
that are really beyond dispute. He wants both 
the facts of the long past and the facts of the 
rest of his world. 

A book of this standard sort deals with facts 
and with principles. These two are blood 
brothers. The fact is the concrete illustration of 
a principle, and the principle interprets the 
meaning of the fact. A fact is a tremendous 
thing. It is the one fixed quantity of life. It is 
true, of course, or else it isn't a fact. It can't be 



The Evidence in the Case 147 

pushed aside nor ignored. The man who tries 
that finds after a bit that he has simply pushed 
himself aside out of the real current. The fact 
remains. 

A fact is always true, yet truth is not simply 
a fact nor a collection of facts. Truth is a fact 
seen in connection with other facts that belong 
with it. Truth is a circle of facts so adjusted 
that each is seen, not simply by itself, but in its 
relation to its brother facts. A fact out of its 
relation may lead a man badly adrift. 

Water won 't run up hill. That 's a very com- 
monplace fact. Yet there is probably not one of 
us but has seen a stream or column or pipeful of 
water moving steadily, decidedly, up an incline, 
and perhaps a very steep, sharp incline, too. Be- 
cause water seeks its own level. That's another 
fact about water. 

The column of water seen moving upward is 
connected with a larger body of water. Like a 
man, it doesn't live to itself. It can't. The 
man may try to, and will find himself badly out 
when the reckonings are footed up. The water 
is true to the simple law of its being. It's part 
of something else. And the connection controls 
its movements. 

What is a fact of a body of water standing un- 
connected, that it won't run up hill, ceases to be 
a fact as it comes into active connection with a 
larger body of water. It does run up hill. It 
gets into right relation with what it belongs to. 

Now the thoughtful Christian man wants to be 



148 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

true and to live true. He earnestly desires to be 
sure of his footing. He may be a leader among 
men in things of the Christian life, or he may 
simply be living his life in a shut-away corner, 
with a limited circle of influence. But he wants 
to know about the simple vital things in a de- 
pendable way, that so he may be true, and al- 
ways ring true, and not find that he 's made some 
radical breaks or slips when the score's finally 
figured up. 

How can he know? Every man can't be a 
specialist. He may have to figure a good bit on 
keeping the roof overhead, on bed and bread, 
for his little group and the like. How can he 
know? There perhaps was never a time when 
moral issues were more obscured by beautifully 
shaded gray clouds than to-day. 

Theories of life are as thick as shells have been 
in the air in Northern France lately. Clouds of 
subtle poison gas float about threatening to dis- 
turb one's normal thinking about things where 
vital principles are at stake. One is eager some- 
times for a spirit gas-mask that will supply pure, 
healthful air, so he can keep his balance, and see 
true and straight. 

Pretty much everything that our fathers un- 
questioningly reckoned as settled in the matter 
of religious belief is being questioned, or openly 
attacked, or ignored. How can a man know? 
I'm thinking most of the common folk who are 
absorbed in life's daily tasks and yet want to 
know, and to be true. 



The Evidence in the Case 149 

Well, there's a Book. It lays peculiar claim 
to being authoritative. And its authority is ac- 
cepted by more people, experts and commoner 
alike, than that of any other. It is the one Book 
that deals directly and distinctively with a man 's 
inner life and conviction, his connection with 
God and with his fellows, and with the great facts 
of the past, and even more of the future, clear 
to the unending end. 

It's not really a large book. It's not written 
in technical language, but in the simple speech 
of the common crowd. It 's broken up into parts, 
making it easier to get hold of what 's there. It 
is full of the sort of incidents right out of life 
that take hold of one's interest and heart at 
once. It has been put into our mother tongue 
by the concerted work of thoughtful, reverent, 
scholarly men of the highest standing. 

And I want to say as thoughtfully as I can 
that it is my deep conviction that a simple work- 
ing mastery of this Book's contents can be got 
by any one who will set himself to it. One 's life 
may be chock full of the day's work, bringing 
him to nightfall ready and eager for rest. It is 
so with every one worth while, as a rule. Yet 
I am quite clear that the man of ordinary in- 
telligence, who will set himself to it, simply and 
earnestly, as he does to anything that his heart's 
in, can get a comprehensive grasp of what is in 
this Book. 

A bit of spare time daily, some simple, com- 
prehensive plan of reading, a reverent spirit, an 



150 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

open mind, and above all, a willingness to square 
one's spirit and daily practice with the Book's 
spirit and teachings — these will bring to any 
one, however busy and undisciplined by special 
study, a working knowledge of the contents and 
spirit and purpose of this remarkably simple 
Book of God. 

Just now we want to turn to this Book for 
only one thing. A thing on which it speaks with 
a degree of positive certainty nothing short of 
startling. And yet it's a thing on which good, 
thoughtful men, who think about such things, 
seem less agreed than about anything else; and 
on which the man who has studied most speaks 
with the most caution. I refer to the future. 
Not the final future of the next life, but the 
future run of events on this earth before the 
wind-up comes. 

One of the most striking, most outstanding, 
things of this Book is that it speaks definitely 
and distinctly about future events on the earth, 
and speaks of them, too, with a positiveness and 
definiteness that almost makes one gasp. It is 
the one thing conservative books avoid doing, as 
a rule. And this is the most conservative of 
books by all common consent. Yet there is here 
this daring feature that marks it quite off from 
all others. 

It seems very plain to one reading thoughtfully 
through this Book that there is here a desire, yes, 
more, a settled dominating purpose to tell about 
a program of events, distinctly future, to be 



The Evidence in the Case 151 

worked out on our earth. It is not simply a pro- 
gram of things which God purposes shall come, 
but, also, quite distinct from that, of things that 
are heart-breaking to Him, and yet which He 
plainly sees will come. 

They are things which will work out of that 
utter freedom of action by man which God un- 
varyingly insists upon. This program runs 
through the Book from end to end, distinct and 
clear. It grows steadily in intensity of state- 
ment and in wealth of detail up to the end. 

Now what I have attempted to do here is quite 
simple. I did it first of all for myself, to get 
some clear settled conviction, this way or that. 
The putting it in this shape on paper was an 
afterthought. It is this : to attempt to trace out 
from end to end the statements of this sort, to 
get all of them, and then to put them together 
in what seemed the logical connection, and find 
out just what the result is. 

I should say that I tried to do this honestly, 
utterly regardless of the familiar theories on the 
subject, and without attempting to make a theory 
to fit things into. I have not even attempted to 
reconcile all that has been found, nor to explain 
what seems unlikely, but simply to get the state- 
ments into what seemed the common-sense logical 
order, and so let these Oriental pages tell their 
own story to us Westerners, in the full connected 
Western fashion. 

And I have not tried to discuss the probabili- 
ties of this program in view of the present world 



152 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

conditions and outlook. That would be a fasci- 
nating road to travel. But it is so full of specu- 
lation pits and side-ditches that I have thought 
it would make a cleaner job to stick to the one 
thing, and get that as clear and simple as pos- 
sible. 

And I confess honestly that I am not eager to 
have any one simply accept what I have put 
down here, profoundly as I have come to believe 
it to be, in the main, an accurate interpretation. 
Indeed I would much rather that something else 
were done. And that is, that others reading 
here may attempt to do for themselves what I 
have tried for myself. 

How to Get the Story of the Book. 

As a possible help to such independent digging 
I want to put down here the things that I am 
clear are essentials to getting the story of the 
Book, in regard to this particular bit of study, 
or any other. 

First of all, let me say that I have a deep 
settled conviction that this Book, our Bible, is 
the very Word of God. It has been inspired in 
a distinctive sense by the Holy Spirit through 
the men who wrote, as has no other book. That 
conviction has deepened and grown steadily with 
the years of study until it is quite unshakeably 
settled. 

And with that conviction has grown an ad- 
miration, a reverence, and an abiding love for 
this remarkable, solitary book. And there has 



The Evidence in the Case 153 

been deepening, too, the settled conviction that 
what it really records of future events on this 
earth will actually occur. And, if this be so, it 
is wholly a matter of finding out in simple con- 
nected terms just what it does say. 

The one thing to emphasize is getting as near 
as possible to the accurate translation into our 
common English talk of what is here. And then 
gathering up what seems the simple sense of what 
is here without any speculations, or attempts to 
fit it into any theories, or to explain away what 
seems the plain meaning. 

The common man who knows only English is 
unusually blest in the translations of the Bible 
which we have. Whether he reads the old King 
James version, or the English Revision of 1881, 
or the American of 1901, he can depend on the 
substantial accuracy as to all vital statements of 
what he reads. 

Yet there is no translation work that cannot 
be helpfully added to by study. And I have 
been so bold as to make paraphrases or free 
translations many times, translation really of 
thought rather than of mere words. I have done 
this only after most painstaking, repeated prayer- 
ful digging into and brooding over the language 
underneath. And I have tried most searchingly 
to be utterly impartial in doing it, for I was try- 
ing to find the truth for myself. 

The spirit in which one goes at the study of 
this Book will affect the results in a most radical 
way. There needs to be a spirit of candid open- 



154 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

mindedness to what he may find, even though it 
cut straight across the grain of what he has been 
thinking or living. 

Of course a man can search for statements to 
bear out his opinions, or practice. Plainly this 
is thoroughly unscientific and unscholarly, as 
well as being unreliable and opposed to good 
common sense. Yet there is nothing commoner 
in actual practice. Or, he may hold in abeyance 
whatever views or theories he may have been 
accustomed to believe, and so at least honestly 
attempt to bring an open mind to the study. 
Mere mental honesty will require him to accept 
what appeals to him as being true. 

But there is something deeper yet than this, 
more radical, and harder to fit into actually. 
The life must be squared with the moral stand- 
ards of the Book. One must keep in full obedient 
touch in his daily practices with the Holy Spirit 's 
leadings in his own inner being. 

For there's a quality in the old Book different 
from all other books. It makes a personal ap- 
peal. There's a living though inaudible voice 
(inaudible to the physical ear) speaking out of 
its pages to one's inner heart. Clearly and ear- 
nestly, though so quietly, it calls one insistently 
up to the moral standard of the Book. And a 
man's keenness of insight into the Book will 
be in exact ratio to his obedience to that quiet 
voice. 

You can't live crooked and think straight. 
I'm not thinking of the wicked man especially, 



The Evidence in the Case 155 

in saying that; nor of the nominal Christian 
man, but of the earnest Christian. If the way- 
he chooses to go crooks off even a little from the 
straight line of the Spirit's leading he will not 
be as keen to get that Spirit's meaning in the 
Book. 

Full rhythm of one's spirit with the gracious 
Holy Spirit, whether He is speaking in the Book 
or in your own inner being, this is essential to 
insight into this rare Book which has been in- 
spired by the same Spirit who dwells in one's 
heart. 

Then the plan you follow in reading the Book 
makes an enormous difference. Most people have 
no plan. The commonest habit is to pick out 
verses and chapters with little or no thought of 
their connection. It's remarkable how you can 
always get something to help, no matter how you 
go at the Book. It is startling how few have a 
grasp or mastery of the contents of the Book. 

I don 't mean, by that, a scholarly grasp nor a 
profound insight into it. I mean something very 
simple, so simple that it is within reach of the 
busiest man or woman who has had no special 
schooling above the ordinary. It is this, a sim- 
ple working knowledge, in a general way, of the 
contents of the Book, and of how the parts fit 
together. It's not a big book. Such masterful 
grasp of it can be got by any one. And it fairly 
floods the pages with light in a most surprising 
and enjoyable way. 

It can all be put in this way. There need to be 



156 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

four things, simple yet radical, and essential: 
an act, a purpose, a habit, and a plan. The act 
of glad surrender of will and life to the mastery 
of Jesus, and to the inner voice of His Holy 
Spirit. The purpose, in everything, with no 
exceptions, to do what He wishes. The habit of 
getting a bit of quiet, unhurried time daily with 
the Book, when you're not all tired out. And 
then a fitting together all you do and get by 
means of some simple, comprehensive plan. 

It is essential that we get into the atmosphere 
of the Book. It is intensely and characteristic- 
ally a Jewish book. The expert in studying a 
painting or piece of sculpture, to get at its value, 
seeks to get the point of view of the artist. Just 
so we should read these old pages as a godly, 
reverent Jew would listen to Moses or Isaiah or 
Amos, as he spoke his messages to the crowd. 

We ought to get the habit of reading them as 
an earnest, believing Jew of later times read 
them, like saintly Simeon or the aged Anna. 
We should study to see and hear as Daniel and 
Matthew and Paul and John saw and heard, if 
we are to get the real spirit and intent of what 
is here. 

We Westerners are Gentiles in the common 
language of the Book. That is, we are not Jews. 
We are non-Jews. We are far removed in time 
and space and atmosphere from these writers. 
Our outlook and ambitions and education are as 
different as the West still is from the East. 

Our common Western point of view is, well, 



The Evidence in the Case 157 

if not actually antagonistic, it is at least in sharp- 
est contrast to the Oriental, from every angle of 
approach. Naturally to breathe in the genius 
of the Book and grasp its distinctive full mean- 
ing one must get into its atmosphere. 

Of course any one can come here and find 
Jesus as his Saviour, and know the blessedness 
of sins forgiven, and of daily strength and light 
on his practical problems. This is unchange- 
ably, perennially, blessedly true wherever the 
Book goes. But if we are to become full-grown 
men, mature in our Christian life and belief, we 
need to push on to a closer acquaintance with 
what God tells us in His Word. 

The thoughtful reader quickly finds that the 
whole atmosphere of this Book of God is in- 
tensely Jewish. It is startlingly so. He comes 
perhaps to wonder if it is prophetically so, if it 
is in itself an intimation to us intense non-Jewish 
Gentile crowds, of something of a startling sort 
coming some day in the old earth. 

The writers are Jews, and naturally are ab- 
sorbed with Jewish ambitions. They have the 
Jewish passion for a Jewish kingdom and for a 
Jewish world-dominion. And the passion is 
marked with that intensity peculiarly Oriental 
which can see nothing else. 

Yet, though so intensely Jewish the Book has a 
world grasp and outlook. It combines intense 
narrowness with surprising breadth. It looks 
out over the whole earth, and on down through 
the whole swing of coming time, yet always from 



158 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

the Jew angle. The Jewish colouring is never 
out of the writer's eye nor out of his ink-pot. 

How to Get a Mastery of the Booh. 

Now, there is a plan of Bible reading which 
ought to be more used, habitually used. It is 
the scientific method. It is the scholar's method. 
And yet it is also the simplest of methods, suited 
for us common folk, for the busy man, for young 
people, and for children. It brings out the 
fascination of the Book as does no other. I refer 
to broad reading. 

It is very much better to use a revised version, 
simply because it is printed in paragraphs, if 
for no other reason. It isn't cut up into small 
bits. It runs along more like any other book, 
and the paragraphs make a natural division of 
the subject matter. It is easier to get the run 
of the story. 

Broad reading means reading the Bible as you 
would read a story book. Of course, there 
should be a reverence here as with no other 
book. That is to say, you begin at the beginning 
and run through rapidly, by the page, regard- 
less of chapter or verse divisions. 

Eead rapidly, not hastily, to get the story, 
just as in the Associated Press dispatches of the 
war, or in any reading. Don't try to under- 
stand it all, just now, nor to remember it all. 
Just get the run of it as a story. You may read 
Genesis through at three or four or five sittings. 

"When you get to the end of Genesis don 't stop 



The Evidence in the Case 159 

there. Keep right on into Exodus. It is a con- 
tinuous narrative. Exodus is like the second 
section of the story. And so keep on through the 
Old Testament. It is one continuous story from 
Genesis to the close of Esther. 

That is, it is practically so. The books of the 
Chronicles go over the same ground as the books 
of Samuel and the Kings, from a different angle, 
the official angle. And Esther is a small story 
of happenings fitting into the larger story. 
Stick to the story reading throughout. 

When you come to Leviticus, simply note that 
the first chapters tell about the offerings they 
were to make. Then it tells about the rules they 
were to follow in making these offerings, and 
about the priests. Then an incident is given of 
some trouble that happened. In that way you 
can have at your finger ends in a general way 
the story of that particular book. And so on 
through. 

The second part of this broad reading plan is 
to fit the parts together. The Old Testament, of 
course, falls roughly into two parts. There is 
the story part from Genesis to Esther. Then 
there are certain bits that grew up in connection 
with the story that are gathered out and put by 
themselves. These form the second part of the 
Old Testament, commonly called the poetical and 
prophetic books. The Psalms that David and 
Asaph and others wrote are gathered together. 
The little books that Solomon wrote or compiled, 
or both, are put by themselves. These with the 



1 6o The Deeper Meaning of the War 

book of Job are grouped together and commonly 
called poetical or wisdom books. 

Then the larger part of this second division is 
the prophetic books. These are the messages of 
the men we would call preachers. Most of them 
were spoken, and afterwards written down, in 
part. Some few were written only, not spoken. 
They were gathered out of the story and put by 
themselves. They really belong, of course, back 
in the story. Only as they are read in that way 
can we get their real meaning. The story of the 
time gives the setting of the preacher's message. 
And the message itself gives the local colouring 
to the story. 

Now the second part of the broad reading plan 
is to fit this second part of the Old Testament 
back into the first part, the preacher's message 
back into the circumstances which led him to give 
it to the people. 

Simply by taking note of the historical sen- 
tences in the reading of the prophecies we can 
turn back to the place in the story where they 
belong. For instance, Jeremiah tells in the be- 
ginning of his book that he wrote during the 
reign of certain kings. It is a simple matter to 
turn back to the double record in Kings and 
Chronicles, and read the two parts together. 
The Third Psalm tells, in the opening inscrip- 
tion, that it was written by David when he fled 
from Absalom his son. The fifteenth and six- 
teenth chapters of Second Samuel give the story. 

There are exceptions to this statement. Some 



The Evidence in the Case 161 

psalms have no inscription to guide us, and some 
of the prophecies have only vague historical allu- 
sions, and so it takes more study to fit these into 
their place in the story. But the general rule 
holds good. 

The same holds true of the New Testament. 
Paul's Epistles which form the bulk of the Book, 
after the Acts, can be fitted in with distinct ac- 
curacy as a rule, into the Book of Acts, and the 
others grouped in where they belong. 

Now fit these parts together. Do it yourself. 
You may likely make some mistakes. You can 
check these up afterwards with some of the 
standard scholarly books. But the chief thing 
is that you are absorbing the Book. It is be- 
coming a bit of yourself. You are breathing in 
its atmosphere. 

You are storing your mind with that through 
which the Holy Spirit will speak to your own 
heart, answering the questions and needs of your 
own life. And you will be getting a picture of 
God, a series of pictures, fascinating pictures, of 
His love and patience and faithfulness. And 
you can come to get His plan', His ideal which He 
holds in His heart for the old earth. 

You see it is not a plan for a day or a week, 
but for steady work. It should be persisted in 
faithfully. Out of it other plans of reading will 
naturally grow. As you dig into some par- 
ticular sentence or verse, word by word, to ex- 
tract its pieces and flavour, you will get far more, 
for you know its story, its setting. 



162 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

When you try to gather up the teachings of 
the Book on some one subject you will be familiar 
with the pages. You can run through rapidly, 
gleaning out statements and illustrations. You 
will come to have a broad grasp of the Book. 
And you will come to have a broader view and 
a balanced, poised judgment. 

And, better yet, if you honestly meet the tug 
of the Book in your life you will find a keenness 
of spirit discernment, and a quiet, unshakeable 
peace in your heart, and a great quiet delight 
as you come to understand God and His pur- 
poses better. 

One other word crowds into this brief group 
of suggestions. Try to forget what you have 
been taught of the meaning. You can't, of 
course; but try to. That is, let it come to you 
fresh as though wholly a new book. And so try 
to find the first meaning of what you are reading. 

There are secondary meanings, of course. We 
are so filled up with "practical applications ' ' 
and "spiritual applications " of the general 
truths that it is hard to hold these off, and get 
the first meaning as it came to those who heard 
when the words were spoken. 

And try to get the simple first-meaning sense, 
what it meant to the man talking, and the men 
listening to him away back in the old time as the 
story was being lived. This simple, first mean- 
ing, the surface meaning, is the chief thing you 
want to get to really understand the Book, and 
God, and His purposes and plans. 



The Evidence in the Case ] 63 

Now, I've gone into this sort of reading quite 
a bit simply because I am eager that many may 
have a fresh reverent go at the old Book itself on 
the subject of God's future program for things 
on the earth, the ideal He carries in His heart 
for our earth. 

Do you know the word brooding? Do you 
know the meaning of it ? I do not mean merely 
the dictionary meaning, the philology of it, but 
the living meaning, the heart meaning ? There 's 
a gentle lady I know, with a great mother heart, 
who has been teaching me that meaning. It is 
not simply by what she has said about it, but 
much more by what she has been in herself as I 
have been quietly watching through the years, 
when she did not know I was watching. 

I have watched her as she has been brooding 
over the wee tot, that plainly needs something 
but hasn't learned word language yet. And I 
have watched her with growing boys, restless, 
eager, impatient of restraint, yet with no ugly 
bad thought underneath, and again when they 
had plainly been disobedient and wilful and 
knew it was so. 

Brooding in the definition of her living and 
action seems to mean putting a warm tender 
heart over another, with the will holding it 
steady and quiet, so as to understand by the feel 
of the spirit how things really are. It is a culti- 
vated spirit-sensitiveness reading another's heart 
and spirit. It is somewhat akin to the physi- 
cian's trained finger on the patient's pulse, or 



164 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

his keen practised eye on the patient 's face, only 
it is very much more subtle and sensitive. It 
registers that which would escape finger and eye, 
and yet is a surer index of inner meanings and 
conditions. 

Now this is the word I want to use for medi- 
tating over this Book of God, so as to get its 
spirit meaning. There is a reaching in past 
words to the thought in the mind of the man 
writing. And, even deeper yet, into the thought 
of the Holy Spirit who is breathing upon the 
man and shaping his thought and word. And 
yet it is not intricate but simple. It's really a 
matter of one's attitude, one's spirit-attitude to- 
ward God and His truth and His written word. 
That attitude is like the setting of a sail which 
catches the slightest puff of air and swings the 
boat into line. One needs to cultivate this 
brooding habit with any book or subject which 
he wishes to understand. And it is peculiarly 
the habit that lets one in the atmosphere and 
spirit meaning of the rare Book of God. 

Now turning to the subject of this particular 
chapter we want to get the evidence in the case. 
We want to find out what this old Book seems 
to tell of God's plan for future things down here. 
It is pretty plain that He has a plan. He. would 
be less than the man He has made if He didn't 
have a plan. And it would be likely that He 
would tell us something of His plan. 

It would be fair to presume that His Book 
would contain His plan. And the thing we want 



The Evidence in the Case 165 

to do here is to try to find that plan of His as 
simply and briefly and clearly as we can. Per- 
haps so we can be of more use to Him. Perhaps 
we can more understanding^ serve Him who 
gave His Son for us. Perhaps, too, if there be 
some rough weather coming well be able to 
steer the ship better, and weather the storm, if 
we know about it ahead, and have our compass 
and sailing charts in plain view, and are familiar 
with them. 

Just now the thing we are after is to try to 
get what is here that is distinctly future. I 
mean to gather out only those parts or state- 
ments that any one, whatever his theories, can 
agree has never yet actually happened in the 
first surface meaning of the words. We will 
omit all passages of doubtful application. We 
will try severely to omit all speculations. We 
will take everything; omit nothing; and add 
nothing. We will try hard to see things as the 
writer sees them. And then gathering all these 
things up in what seems the natural unforced 
connection let the Book tell its own story, so far 
as we can. 

We cannot be wholly unprejudiced in this, un- 
happily. I suppose such a man doesn't exist. 
But we can try honestly and severely to be. We 
shall not understand all, probably, for we are 
not Jews, and we are not living back where these 
men saw and dreamed and talked and wrote. 
We are Occidentals. And this is character- 
istically an Oriental Book. And the two seem 



166 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

as sharply contrasted as two different things 
can be. 

Yet only a little reading of this Book makes it 
clear that there 's a living spirit in it. The same 
Holy Spirit who graciously comes to live in ns 
lived in men then. He guided their speech and 
pens. He will guide our reading and under- 
standing. One touch of the Holy Spirit makes 
all the race akin, Oriental and Occidental alike. 
And so we may come to a practical grasp of our 
blessed Lord's plan for coming days, and a prac- 
tical grasp of the evil one's opposition to that 
plan. And we can look ahead to the day of 
God's victory in the earth, through human action. 

The Messages of the Long Twilight. 

Turn now to the Book, this authoritative Book. 
I am supposing that the reader has his Bible 
open, preferably a revised, and is following the 
foot-note references. 

There is a slender but distinct chain of pas- 
sages * beginning with words spoken to Abraham 
and running up to the time of David. I have 
not quoted these. Looked at in the floodlight of 
the later prophetic utterances it seems clear that 
they have a fullness of meaning that no events 
thus far at all satisfy. Yet we are so accustomed 
to the teaching that they do find their fulfilment 
in the first coming of Christ and the remarkable 

'Genesis 12:1-3; 26:1-5; 28:10-15; 49:9-11; Deu- 
teronomy 18:15-19; 2 Samuel 7:16, 18, 19; 23:3-5. 



The Evidence in the Case 167 

progress of Christianity, that I have omitted 
them in this survey. 

The great bulk of teaching is in these books 
called prophetic. We want first to get, at a 
glance, the historical setting of these books. The 
Old Testament is almost wholly taken up with 
the story of the Jew nation. This is the warp 
into which all threads are woven. Roughly that 
story falls into three parts. There is the mak- 
ing of the nation, running from the Twelfth of 
Genesis to the close of Deuteronomy, when they 
are about to enter into their national domain. 

There is the time of the nation's growth up to 
its greatest strength and territory and glory, in 
the reigns of David and Solomon. This runs 
from the beginning of Joshua through the first 
half of First Kings and to the close of First 
Chronicles. Then there is the time of decline 
running to the end of Ezra and Nehemiah. 

It is in this third period that the prophetic 
books grew up. As the great kings go the 
great prophets come. As the night falls and 
darkens the stars come out. They shine clearest 
in the darkest hours. It's a time of both moral 
and material gloom growing ever denser, with 
some gleams of light springing up, and then 
things settling down again into deeper, darker 
gloom. 

The split-up of the nation into two rival parts 
is followed by its complete break-up, as it is 
carried bleeding, utterly broken, into the land 
of exile. Then follows the return of some to the 



168 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

homeland, a small ragged remnant, a few piti- 
able thousands, straggling and struggling toward 
some semblance of national life. 

It is in this night-time of disheartening gloom, 
chiefly, that something new is born, a literature, 
the literature of the night, really the literature 
of a coming morning. It fairly sparkles and 
dazzles with the glorious vision of the men who 
write. These men write by the light of stars. 
They see the stars, point them out, and write in 
their warm glad glow. 

This new literature of the night, of the coming 
morning, falls into three parts. There are the 
messages before the break-up and exile. They 
come slow, through the slowly deepening twilight 
of the coming night. There are the messages 
written during the time of captivity when the 
night has settled down black and gaunt. And 
then there are those written as the night seems 
to grow less dark, and the dawn seems coming. 
Yet the darkness never yields to sunrising. The 
new day struggles upward in the gray east but 
never gets up. Let us look at these. 

There are eight of these pamphlets or little 
books in the first of these groups, those written 
before the exile, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Micah, 
Isaiah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Joel. 

Jonah is concerned wholly with Nineveh, and 
contains nothing of what we are looking for. 
There are four that belong together, Amos, 
Hosea, Isaiah and Micah. These four men quite 
likely were acquainted. They may have been 



The Evidence in the Case 169 

friends, drawn together as lonely men in a diffi- 
cult time, by the same protest against common 
evils, the same burning hearts and the same 
vision. 

Amos comes first in order of time. He is the 
evening star of the prophetic period, shining out 
whilst the sunlight of the fading day is yet 
strong. He is not a " proper" prophet trained 
in the schools, but a small farmer, fine-grained, 
thoughtful student of national affairs, who 
brooded over the evils of his people till the 
burning fire could no longer be held in. 

His brief activity comes in somewhere during 
the fourteen years that the reigns of Uzziah of 
Judah and Jereboam II of Israel overlapped. 
He was a southerner, his home not far from 
Bethlehem. His messages are to Israel the 
northern kingdom. He spoke them in Bethel, 
one of the centers of the licentiously idolatrous 
worship of the northern kingdom. Affairs 
there have been extremely desperate materially, 
and immensely more morally. His messages are 
full of severest criticism and denunciation of the 
damnable evils prevalent. 

At the end comes a bit that seems clearly 
future. 1 It has never yet taken place. There 
is to be an earthquake, though that word is not 
used, which one quickly thinks is the one referred 
to in the opening sentence of the Book. But this 
is connected with a supernaturally dark day, the 
sun going down at noon. And it is connected 
"Amos 8:8-9; 9:5-15. 



170 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

also with a breaking up of the Jew nation, that is 
of the whole nation, northern and southern, desig- 
nated here as "the house of Jacob." Yet there 
would be preservation of Jewish identity, in spite 
of their being scattered among the nations, which 
always tends to rub out racial identity. 

But in sharp contrast there is connected with 
this a restoration or renationalization of the 
Jew. It would be through a revival of the old 
David dynasty. And through this restoration 
the newly formed Jew nation would become a 
leader of other nations. And with this would 
be a restoration of the Jew 's homeland to a con- 
dition of remarkable fertility. 

"In that day" is the phrase connecting these 
events. This phrase groups together the earth- 
quake, the dark day, the national break-up, and 
the subsequent restoration. There is apparently 
a period of judgment on the Jew, when he is 
scattered, then a crisis of judgment, with the 
earthquake and the supernatural dark day, fol- 
lowed by the renationalization. 

The phrase "in that day/' which is so com- 
mon in all these prophetic books, in that or some 
equivalent form, is found first, here, in Amos. 1 
It is used first in chapter five, where the mean- 
ing seems clearly to be the time when God would 
be in control of affairs and would be acting to 
carry out His purposes. Those who were look- 
ing forward to it as a time of prosperity are 
warned that it would be a time of visitation of 
'Amos 5: 18, 20; 8: 3, 9; 9: 11. 



The Evidence in the Case 171 

judgment 011 the nation as well as the new pros- 
perity they were anticipating. 

Now the striking thing to note is that these 
things are clearly grouped. It is quite evident 
to any one that such a group of events has never 
occurred in Jewish history. If they are to occur 
it must be at some future time. 

Hosea begins in the reign of Uzziah, probably 
a little later than Amos, and continues into the 
reign of Hezekiah. He speaks to the southern 
kingdom, Judah. The break-up of the northern 
kingdom occurs during his activity, and adds 
solemn emphasis to his warnings. The nation 
has sunk to its lowest ebb, morally, down to the 
Ahab standard, which hastened the doom of their 
northern kinsfolk. There is a vividness of illus- 
tration startling in its intensity, and in its touch- 
ing upon the sacred intimacies of life. There 
is a fine tenderness and gracious pleading 
blended with severe outcry against the evil so 
bad and so common. 

The first bit * puts emphasis on a time of rare 
blessedness following a visitation of judgments. 
The nation is to be brought into "the wilder- 
ness, ' ' that is, judged. ' ' The valley of Achor ' ' 2 
is to be a "door of hope." That is, through the 
most drastic judgment on sin there is to be an 
entrance into a new life beyond, when the nation 
would "sing" as joyously as when they had got 
safely out of Egyptian slavery. 

Now all this would not be of significance in our 
1 Hosea 2 : 14-23. 2 Joshua 7 : 16-26. 



172 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

present search but for the fact that it is coupled 
directly with the winsome bit following. There 
is a day coming when, for their sakes, there will 
be a radical change in the nature of the lower 
animals, a change back to Eden days. Tigers 
and hyenas, vultures and serpents and scorpions 
will no longer be hurtful nor dreaded. Mili- 
tarism is wholly gone. There would be the ten- 
derest and most intimate relation between God 
and His chosen people. 

There would be a wonderful rhythm in 
nature, giving great fertility to the soil and 
abundant crops. Listen: "I will strike the 
key-note of a sweet rhythm," saith the Lord. 
"I will respond or sing back to the plea of the 
heavens, and so they shall sing back to the need 
of the earth with dew and rain, and the earth 
shall respond or sing back with grain and new 
wine and oil, and these shall all be in full 
rhythm with Israel my people whom I have 
sown in the soil of the peoples of the earth." 
And yet the climax would be the eagerness with 
which the people would respond to God 's love as 
He calls them His own people. "I will love 
these who have been so unloved. ' ' 

The second bit to catch one 's eye is very brief 
but striking. 1 The nation is to be broken up 
as a nation. It is to remain so "many days." 
Afterwards these conditions are to be reversed, 
the people to return not only to God but to the 
David dynasty. And this is said to come "in 
1 Hosea 3:4-5. 



" The Evidence in the Case 173 

the latter days. ' ' There could he no more vivid 
description of the present condition of the Jews 
than here. The after-conditions certainly have 
not come yet. 

The third bit J is a rarely winsome picture of 
a restored people enjoying not only material 
prosperity but God's gracious approval. It 
might be supposed to be simply a Jew's highly 
idealized dream of his people's future, possibly 
already realized in their history in some degree. 
But clearly this Jew couples it with the first bit, 
and so with a time of distinct restoration after 
the visitation of judgment. 

The outlook here in Hosea is wholly Jewish. 
Here the Jew is broken up as a nation but not as 
a people. Then he is restored, and restored as a 
spiritually changed people, to a land of renewed 
fertility in which the nature of the beasts and 
birds are changed from being hurtful to being 
companions. 

Isaiali's active service ran through a long 
period, something over forty-six years. He had 
access to court circles and to the king's presence. 
Some of his messages were given in person to the 
king. 

It should be kept in mind in reading that these 
are spoken messages. Frequently they have all 
the directness of personal conversation, the 
abrupt break or transition that marks a man 
talking to a group where the attitude of the 
crowd affects the man and his talk. 
1 Hosca 14:4-8. 



174 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

In this present survey I am taking the book of 
Isaiah in two parts, chapters 1-39 grouped with 
the pre-exile prophets, and chapters 40-66 with 
those after the exile. I am familiar with the ob- 
jections to this by many saintly people for whose 
judgment I have the deepest regard. I have 
been led to this decision, in getting the historical 
setting of the messages, entirely and only from 
many times repeated readings. And I am fol- 
lowing that arrangement only to make a clearer 
grouping of the teaching. This in no way af- 
fects the full explicit inspiration of these remark- 
able pages by the Holy Spirit through the 
writers. 

Isaiah is like a great piece of music. The 
dominant or key note of the whole is struck clear 
and vibrant at the very first. 1 Then in a re- 
markable group of paragraphs 2 he gathers up 
the whole swing of his message, not only the plea 
to his people, but the full outline of the message 
delivered through the course of his long minis- 
try. And then follows, through the succeeding 
pages, the various messages spoken at different 
times. 

It will be noted that the topical arrangement 
dominates over the chronological. The writer 
isn't concerned with getting the messages in the 
order of time in which they were spoken. The 
time notes are really incidental. He is absorbed 
with the thing he's talking about, This is char- 
acteristic of all these prophetic books. It is dis- 

1 Isaiah I. 9 Isaiah 2-5. 



The Evidence in the Case 175 

tinctly Oriental, and is the common method still 
in the Orient. It is the popular method. 

Now, a look at this opening summary of 
Isaiah's whole message to find any items that 
have not happened yet. The big thing that fills 
Isaiah 's eye * is that the Jew nation is to come to 
a place of world leadership among all the nations 
of the earth. It will be through a voluntary ac- 
ceptance of Jewish leadership by all the nations. 
It will be wholly a non-military leadership and 
all the nations will be on a non-military basis. 

This is directly connected with a visitation of 
judgment sweeping over all the earth. 2 This 
judgment is universal and intense. Men of all 
classes will be terror-stricken at the evidence of 
God's presence and power in action before their 
very eyes. But it should be keenly noted that 
it is not a final judgment on evil. 

It is clearly a crisis of judgment leading 
through to something else. It is connected with 
the Jewish world leadership, and, by simple in- 
ference, precedes it. The time when this is to 
come is called repeatedly "the day of the Lord," 
as though it meant a time when He would be in 
action, righting all things that are wrong, as He 
is not doing at the present time. 

Then there is to be a visitation of judgment on 
the Jew also. It is not spoken of as a period of 
judgment but as a crisis of judgment. 3 One 
would naturally connect this with events long 

1 Isaiah 2 : 2-4. 2 Isaiah 2 : 10-21. 

8 Isaiah 3 : 1-4 : 1. 



1 76 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

ago in Jew history but for the fact that here it 
is grouped with these other things that clearly 
have not happened yet. "In that day" is the 
connecting link throughout these paragraphs. 

Then follows a picture of the new Jew nation 
after this crisis of judgment and as a direct re- 
suit of it. 1 The Jewish leadership among the 
nations is to be wholly unlike anything ever 
known. The Jews are to be a radically changed 
people. This is to be through God's direct 
touch, overcoming natural ingrained traits of 
character. The Jew will be commonly called 
holy, just as to-day the Britisher is called plucky, 
the American aggressive, the French versatile, 
and the German a plodder. 

Jerusalem, the Jewish capital, and so, under 
Jew world-leadership, reckoned the world cap- 
ital, is to be marked by the visible presence of 
God, as was the tabernacle in the Wilderness 
sands. This is part of the picture of a new order 
of things on the earth following the crisis of 
judgment on the Jew and on all the nations. 
And all this is said to be * ' in the latter days. ' ' 

This summary of his whole message closes with 
a passionate plea to the nation, mingled with 
sharp denunciation and solemn assurance of the 
certainty of the judgment that is coming. 2 

Now here are five tilings grouped together in 
this summary of Isaiah's message. There is to 
be a visitation of judgment on the Jew, running 
through a period of time, and then coming to a 

1 Isaiah 4 : 2-6. 2 Isaiah 5. 



The Evidence in the Case 177 

sharp crisis. There is to be a crisis of judgment 
on the whole earth. This is to be followed by a 
new order of things on the earth. In this new- 
order the Jew nation is to have the place of 
world-leadership. But he is to be a wholly, 
radically changed Jew. The most striking thing 
to note here is that these things are distinctly 
grouped together. Certainly such a combina- 
tion, if ever realized, is distinctly future. 

Such, in brief, are the items in this compre- 
hensive summary of his whole message with 
which Isaiah opens his book. It is followed by 
the account of the remarkable personal experi- 
ence he had one day in the temple. 1 There was 
a wondrous vision of God, and in it his own life's 
mission pointed out to him. 

Thus it will be noted that Isaiah makes a very 
simple grouping of his written messages. There 
is first the striking of the key-note of his message 
to his own generation ; ' then a summary of the 
whole outline of his message ; 8 then the remark- 
able personal experience through which he came 
to be God's messenger, 4 and there follows the in- 
dividual messages with all their glow and direct- 
ness and detail, as they were given at different 
times. 5 

Now we want to take a brief look at these in- 
dividual messages. There is a group of para- 
graphs running through chapters seven to twelve. 
While they run through at least a year's time, 

1 Isaiah 6. • Isaiah I. 3 Isaiah 2-5. 

4 Isaiah 6. 5 Isaiah 7-35. 



178 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

they are clearly tied together by the same chain 
of thought, and even in the language used. It 
is a time of trouble when a coalition of Syria and 
Israel is threatening invasion of Judah and 
Jerusalem. 1 

There is coming a judgment on the nation as a 
punishment. 2 This could refer wholly to past 
Jewish history. But in contrast with that, cer- 
tain items stand sharply out. There is to come 
a great light to the nation, with great increase 
of numbers, and great joy because of overwhelm- 
ing victory over their enemies. 3 

This comes directly as the result of a great 
king coming. He sits on the throne of David. 
His government is to be without limit of power 
or of time, and to be a government of peace and 
justice. 

There is to be judgment on the enemies of the 
Jews after the judgment on the Jew is com- 
pleted. 4 This would seem wholly past, but for 
the fact that it is directly connected with a res- 
toration of the Jew 6 and with a decisive visita- 
tion of judgment on the whole earth. 6 There is 
a strikingly vivid picture of the enemy advanc- 
ing against Jerusalem, 7 and then the destruction 
of the enemy. That is to say, the enemy used in 
a visitation of judgment on the Jew, is then 

1 Isaiah 7. ' Isaiah 7-8. s Isaiah 9 : 1-7. 

4 Isaiah 10. Note verse 12 and on. 
6 Isaiah 10 : 20-21 . 6 Verses 23-27. 

'Verses 28-32. 



The Evidence in the Case 1 79 

himself judged decisively by a sharp turning of 
the tables. 1 

Then this group of paragraphs ends with a 
glowing picture of Jewish restoration and of a 
new order of things on the earth under Jewish 
leadership. 2 There is a great King coming. 3 
He is of the lineage of David's family. He is 
most rarely equipped personally through the 
presence of the Holy Spirit in unusual measure. 
A Jewish king, yet his reign is to be extended 
over all the earth. His reign is absolute, meting 
out justice to the poor and oppressed, and to the 
oppressor. It is a new kind of rule. He slays 
the wicked. Yet it is done with the breath of 
His mouth. 

There is a radical change in the nature of the 
animals that have been dreaded, the wolf and 
leopard, the lion and bear, the asp and the adder. 
There is to be an utter absence of all violence, 
because the knowledge of God would be so wide- 
spread. 4 The Jew nation is to be the rallying 
center for all other nations, who will come of 
their own choice. 5 At this time there would be 
a remarkable gathering of all Jews from all parts 
of the earth where they have been scattered. 6 
There would be utmost harmony among the Jews 
themselves. Those who had been their inveterate 
enemies will now eagerly help them back to their 
restored homeland. There would be changes in 
the Egyptian (Red) Sea and in the Euphrates 

1 Isaiah 10 : 33-34. a Isaiah 11-12. 3 Isaiah 11 : 1-5. 

* Isaiah 1 1 : 6-9. 5 Isaiah 11 : 10. 6 Isaiah 11 : 11-16. 



180 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

River to facilitate their journey back to Pales- 
tine. It would be a similar experience to the 
great historic deliverance out of Egypt at the be- 
ginning of their national history. 

And the section ends with a great outburst of 
praise. 1 Five times in the section there occurs 
the striking sentence "for all this His anger is 
not (yet) turned away but His Hand is stretched 
out still" (in judgment). It occurs once in the 
summary 2 and four times in this group of para- 
graphs. 3 Now, at the close, it is changed — "for 
though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is 
turned away and thou comfortest me." 4 The 
period of graduated judgment is over. The 
crisis of judgment at the close of the period is 
past. The sun is shining again. God smiles 
down upon a purified people, entering upon a 
new world ministry. 

Immediately following this is a small group of 
paragraphs about Babylon. 6 It would at first 
flush naturally be supposed that this refers to the 
ancient city of Babylon and the great dynasty 
centering there, and that it had its fulfilment 
centuries ago. But there are certain features 
plainly stated here that have not happened. 

Notice: the swing of action is world-wide. 6 
The armies of the kingdoms of the nations are 
gathered together in Palestine and overwhelm- 

1 Isaiah 12. 8 Isaiah 5 : 25. 

3 Isaiah 9 : 12, 17, 21 ; 10 : 4. 4 Isaiah 12:1. 

8 Isaiah 13, 14 : 1-27. 6 Isaiah 13 14, 5, 11. 



The Evidence in the Case 181 

ingly defeated there. 1 The defeat is by super- 
natural power, as a judgment from God, and is 
accompanied by a tremendous shake-up in the 
heavenly bodies, and as tremendous earthquakes. 2 
This judgment is on the organized world system 
of evil, not on the masses of the people. 3 The 
language used of the head of this world system 
here called Babylon, who is judged and defeated, 
could not even in florid Oriental rhetoric be used 
of any human being. 4 As a direct and immedi- 
ate result the Jew nation is restored, and is given 
a place of leadership among the nations. 5 And 
this new order of things on the earth brings rest 
and rejoicing to the masses of the people and to 
the whole earth. 6 

The whole passage seems to point to a world- 
wide armed coalition against the Jew in Pales- 
tine, inspired by unseen evil spirit forces. And 
the stinging defeat is not only of the organized 
world system but of some spirit power behind 
it. I am carefully avoiding any discussion of 
this or its probability; only putting down what 
seems clearly to be here. 

While there are bits here that fit into the past 
of the city and empire of Babylon in the 
Euphrates valley, 7 clearly the passage does not 
at all find its fulfilment in anything recorded in 

1 Isaiah 13:4 with 14:25. These references touch 
only specific points. One must read the whole section 
repeatedly and breathe in its spirit. 

2 Isaiah 13 : 9-13. 8 Isaiah 13 : 14. * Isaiah 14 : 12-14. 

5 Isaiah 14 : 1-2. « Isaiah 14 : 7-8. 7 Isaiah 13 : 17-22. 



1 82 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

history. It is a commonplace to say that there 
runs through the Bible a rhetorical use of the 
word Babylon for the whole system of evil in the 
world. It begins with the God-ignoring am- 
bitious building of a great tower at Babel, and 
continues consistently to the end of John 's Reve- 
lation. It will be noted that while the ancient 
city of Babylon has lain in ruins for centuries 
the language used here is not fully fulfilled in 
conditions on the old Babylon site to-day. The 
words fit into a past destruction and point to 
something more that hasn't yet happened. 

Here then is a crisis of judgment for the Jew, 
turned into a crisis of judgment for the world 
system, followed by a restored Jew nation at the 
head of the nations, and a consequent happy new 
order of things on the earth. 

This seems clearly to be the first meaning here ; 
the meaning to the man talking and then writ- 
ing, and to those of his own generation listening 
and reading. And quite as clearly such a group 
of events has never yet worked out. 

There follows now a series of messages to the 
nations surrounding these Jew nations, Philistia 
on the immediate coast, 1 Moab to the southeast, 2 
Damascus to the north, 3 some African country 
beyond Ethiopia in the far south, 4 Egypt the 
nearer south, 6 Babylon ("the wilderness of the 
sea") in the far east, 6 Dumah or Edom in the 

1 Isaiah 14 : 28-33. 8 Isaiah 15 and 16. 

3 Isaiah 17. * Isaiah 18. 

5 Isaiah 19-20. 6 Isaiah 21 : 1-10. 



The Evidence in the Case 183 

southeast, 1 Arabia to the far southeast, 2 then to 
the home people ("the valley of vision"), 3 then 
Tyre on the far northern coast. 4 The one con- 
stant strain in all of these messages is that God 
is going to act in judgment righting the wrongs. 
In the message to Egypt there is promise of 
utterly changed blessed conditions for Egypt 
and for Assyria after the judgment. 

Then there is a broad summing up of the case 
for the whole world. These nations seem to be 
meant to stand for all the nations. This summing 
up makes a most remarkable climax. It runs 
through chapters twenty-four to twenty-seven. 

The whole earth is to be judged. 5 It is be- 
cause the laws have been broken, the very laws 
of nature. Yet it is not a final judgment, nor 
a judgment of all the race. 8 There is a spared 
population. These would be radically changed 
in spirit by the experience they have gone 
through. The earth would ring with their joy- 
ous songs. 

In the judgment there is a terrific series of 
earthquakes. 7 The judgment includes the evil 
leaders in the unseen spirit world, as well as 
kings on the earth. These are to be interned for 
a later punishment. Then follows a glorious 
reign of God on the earth through the restored 
Jew nation. 

Then follows a jubilant song of praise over the 

1 Isaiah 21:11. 2 Isaiah 21 : 13-17. 3 Isaiah 22. 

* Isaiah 23- 5 Isaiah 24 : 1-6. 6 Isaiah 24 : 13-16. 

7 Isaiah 24: 18-23. 



184 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

wondrous new order of things on the earth. 1 In 
this certain items stand out. The Jew is to be 
the first nation of all the earth. His leadership 
will be to all the peoples of the earth as a feast 
of good things to eat. There will be a new open- 
ness of mind and heart toward God and His 
truth among all men. Prejudice and ignorance 
and hatred of God will disappear. It is as 
though a veil is now over their minds, and this 
will be taken away. There will be a universal 
cessation of death and of sorrow, and of the 
antagonistic feeling toward the Jew. 

There is to be in connection with this new 
order a partial resurrection of those who have 
died, that is a resurrection of those in touch with 
God. "Tliy dead shall live: my dead bodies 
shall arise. Awake and sing ye that dwell in the 
dust (of the graves) ; for the dew of God is a 
life-giving dew, giving life to that which has lost 
life, and the earth shall cast forth the dead." 

There is the intimation that some would be 
spared God's visitation of judgment. And the 
whole group of events is characterized as God 
acting in judgment to right the wrongs of earth. 
And it is directly said that He will at this time 
act in judgment against Satan, the great evil 
spirit leader. 2 And then there is to be a gather- 
ing of Jews from everywhere to Palestine. 3 

The group of messages running through chap- 
ters twenty-eight to thirty-five close up the 
prophetical part of the first section of Isaiah. 

1 Isaiah 25-27. s Isaiah 27 : 1. 3 Isaiah 27 : 12-13. 



The Evidence in the Case 185 

It follows the same general strain with some 
details added. 

Jerusalem "the lion of God" is to suffer a 
terrible siege by a multitude of all the nations. 
The deliverance is through God's direct inter- 
position, turning the judgment on the Jew into 
a judgment on these nations. It is accompanied 
by a great storm of thunder and lightning with 
earthquake, and the nations assembled against her 
are blown away like small dust before the wind. 
The deliverance comes "in an instant sud- 
denly/ ' * The striking thing to note is that this 
is directly connected with a complete restoration 
of the Jew nation, wholly changed in spirit, and 
this comes quickly after the crisis of judgment. 2 

In the new order of things coming there is to 
be a notable change in nature. There would be 
an increase in the light of the sun and moon, 
exerting a wholesome, healing influence on the 
earth, in the day when the Jew-nation's wounds 
are being healed up. This is connected with a 
judgment on the nations, and by simple infer- 
ence following it. It will be a terrific crisis of 
judgment, through supernatural interposition, 
and be accompanied by a tremendous storm. 3 

There's a peculiarly tender touch of God's love 
in the way He will protect the Jew during the 
awful crisis coming. He will be to the nation 
and their capital city as a mother-bird hovering 
over her young to protect them. So He will 

1 Isaiah 29 : 1-8. 2 Isaiah 29 : 17-24. 

8 Isaiah 30 : 23-33. 



186 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

protect and deliver and preserve. The enemy- 
would be defeated by supernatural interposition, 
and would find his attempt against the Jew turn- 
ing into a terrible fire for himself. 1 

Then Isaiah swings again to the blessed new 
order of things coming for his people. 2 It will 
be through a notable king coming. His very- 
presence would be a protection. There would be 
a change in the character of the people, both 
moral and mental. Men would be keener men- 
tally, with truer insight into character, and con- 
trolled by high moral standards. 

All this would come through the Holy Spirit 
being poured out upon them. 3 Justice and right- 
eousness and peaceful content would be the 
blessed commonplace. But before all this there 
would be a terrible crisis of judgment. 4 And 
then an exquisite practical word is put in re- 
garding one's personal attitude toward all this: 
meanwhile blessed are ye that go patiently, 
strongly on in the commonplace daily round, 
amid all sorts of circumstances, steadily believ- 
ing in the victorious blessed outcome which God 
has promised. 5 

There is the vivid abruptness of the spoken 
word to an intense responsive crowd in this next 
bit. 6 Isaiah is denouncing the enemy of his people, 
then he looks up and breathes out a prayer for 
help. Then suddenly he sees the city surrounded 
by the enemies as he has so often told. Then 

1 Isaiah 31 : 4-9. 2 Isaiah 32. 3 Isaiah 32 : 15. 

4 Isaiah 32 : 19. 6 Isaiah 32 : 20. 6 Isaiah 33. 



The Evidence in the Case 187 

with dramatic suddenness God reveals His power 
interposing; there's a great tumult of confused 
terror among the crowds surrounding the city, 
then the peoples flee in precipitate confusion, 
and the Jew takes possession of the vast stores 
left behind. 1 And then Isaiah's eye is flooded 
with the wonderful changes, natural and spiri- 
tual, surely coming in the blessed restoration. 

The crisis of judgment on the nations absorbs 
his speech as he brings his record of messages to 
a close. It is to be on all the nations. It is a 
judgment of indignation against the wrongs of 
earth. It comes up to a terrific heading or crisis, 
with terrible earthquakes, and a break-up in the 
rhythm of the skies. 

It is connected directly with the land of Edom 
as the immediate center of action. It is spoken 
of as a day of vengeance, that is, not revenge, but 
a making right of what has been wrong. And 
this is in behalf of the Jews. It should be 
keenly noted that it is not a general final judg- 
ment, for it is followed by the new Jewish order. 

This new order of things is the subject of the 
exquisite prose poem with which he closes. 2 
Diseased human conditions are all quite gone. 
The earth is changed back to a Garden of Eden 
again. Beasts of prey no longer disturb. There 
is a glad confidence in human hearts in place of 
withering fear. There is a wholly new moral 
nature in men. And with great bursts of joyous 
singing they make the city of Jerusalem to ring. 

1 Isaiah 32 : 1-4. 2 Isaiah 35. 



188 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

This is one of the bits in Isaiah that the Chris- 
tian heart has loved and glowed over in every 
land throughout the generations. But it has a 
depth and intensity of meaning to the Jew talk- 
ing and writing and the Jew listening and read- 
ing which no non-Jew can take in until it be- 
comes a reality to our eyes with theirs. 

Now the intensely significant thing for us non- 
Jews to note is that these things are all grouped 
together in Isaiah 's thought and passion. There 's 
a terrific crisis coming, and through it the new 
wondrous order coming to the earth with the Jew 
in the center. Of course, no such grouping of 
events has ever occurred. 

Micah is the fourth of this quartette of 
prophet-preachers whose time of activity runs 
together. He comes in toward the close of the 
period when these four men were God's spokes- 
men to the nation. His written message is brief. 
He begins abruptly with a crisis of judgment 
coming to all the earth. It is by direct action of 
God. It is accompanied by earthquake, though 
that word is not used. 1 

Then he goes on to connect this with the sins 
of his own people. And continues in this strain. 
Then he comes to the favourite subject with all 
these Jewish preachers. There's a new order of 
things coming to the earth. It will be in "the 
latter days. ' ' 2 The Jew is to be at the head of 
all the nations of the earth. The other nations 
come voluntarily to his leadership. 

1 Micah i : 2-4. 2 Micah 4. 



The Evidence in the Case 189 

He is to be peculiarly a teacher-nation, teach- 
ing about God, who Himself is King over them. 
He is to be the arbiter in all disputes among the 
nations. In that He will be the spokesman of 
God. It is to be a non-military leadership. The 
poorest man of the smallest nation would be free 
to sit by his own fireside with enough fuel in the 
grate, enough food in the kitchen, with his child 
cuddling at his knee and no breath of withering 
fear knocking at the door. 1 

But all this comes after and through a crisis 
coming. 2 This comes distinctly after the return 
from the Babylon captivity. This time it is a 
gathering not of one but of "rnany nations" 
against the Jew. But by God's overruling provi- 
dence and interposition the situation is exactly 
reversed, and the occasion is turned into a defeat 
of these nations by the Jew. 

The future glory of the restored Jew would be 
through the coming of a notable king. 3 He 
would come of human stock. His birthplace is 
Bethlehem. Not the Bethlehem up north in 
Zebulun but the one down in Judah near to 
Jerusalem whose older name was Ephrathah. 
Yet he is to be of divine stock too, "his goings 
forth from everlasting." His coming puts an 
end to a period of judgment during which they 
have been "given up" to their enemies. 

His reign is over the Jew, and yet it would also 
be "unto the ends of the earth/' Under His 

1 Micah 4 : 1-8. 2 Micah 4 :g~5 : 1. 

3 Micah 5 : 2-15. 



190 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

reign the Jew would be a blessing to the nations, 
"as dew from the Lord, as showers upon the 
grass," and be the leader among the nations. 
It would be strictly a non-military leadership, 
and the Jew a spiritually changed people. And 
the beginning of all this is to be through a crisis 
of judgment "upon the nations.' ' 

At the close the same threads are gathered up 
and knotted. 1 When God's " indignation " 
against Israel's sin has spent itself He would 
"execute judgment" against their enemies. 
Israel would be in the lead among the nations. 

It would be just such a time as when they 
came out of Egypt and the hosts of Pharaoh were 
utterly destroyed, but much more. For now the 
nations are to come humbly and reverently to 
God and to Jewish leadership ashamed of their 
past conduct. This would be through some out- 
standing revelation of the power of God utterly 
subduing the pride of the nations. 

There follows these messages a smaller group 
of three prophetic writers. Habakkuk, Zepha- 
niah and Joel speak their messages a little later 
as things are heading up toward the climax of 
the exile. 

Habakkuk, though so brief, is of intense in- 
terest because it is a discussion of the whole 
problem of evil. He is troubled over evil, un- 
punished, running riot among the leaders of 
his people. 2 God answers his cry with assurance 
that Israel is to be punished through the As- 

1 Micah 7 : 9-17. 2 Habakkuk 1 : 1-4. 



The Evidence in the Case 191 

Syrian. 1 But Habakkuk is still troubled because 
Assyria is so evil. It would still be evil in the 
lead. He looks for a further answer. 2 And it 
comes. 3 The Assyrian is to be judged. Then 
the view broadens out to the time when God 
would be in action to righten the wrongs in "all 
the earth.' ' 

And there comes to the troubled man on his 
knees a vision of God acting in judgment. 4 It 
should be noted that the action words throughout 
are future rather than past, as in our common 
versions, i.e., "God cometh from Teman," His 
glory covereth the heavens, and so on through 
verse 15. It is so indicated in the margin of both 
English and American revisions. Habakkuk sees 
it all as something distinctly future. 

The judgment is upon the nations; 5 it is 
accompanied by earthquake and storm 6 and 
heavenly disturbances. 7 The scene of action is 
in the land of Palestine, 8 implying a gathering of 
the armies of the nations there. It is connected 
with Edom as the place from which God comes in 
judgment. 9 The chief of the enemy forces is 
wounded to death. 10 The immediate objective is 
not a final judgment on the race, but is on behalf 
of the Jew. It is a vindication of the wrongs 

habakkuk 1:5-11. 2 Habakkuk 1 : 12-2 : I. 

3 Habakkuk 2 : 2-20. * Habakkuk 3 : 1-15. 

5 Habakkuk 3 : 11-12. 6 Verse 10. 7 Verse 11. 

8 Verse 12. » Verse 3« 

10 Verses 13, 14. 



192 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

against him. 1 The result is a restoration of the 
Jew nation. 2 

Zephaniali's brief message rings the same 
changes. The nations and kingdoms will be as- 
sembled together, and then God will pour out 
His indignation upon them. 3 The movement is 
to be earth-wide. But it is not a final judgment 
on the common crowd of the race, for it is fol- 
lowed by a changed order on the earth. In this 
the peoples are said to be turned again to a pure 
or unmixed tongue or language. It calls to mind 
the confusion or mixture of tongues away back 
at Babel, and one wonders just what it means. 
The Jew is not only restored to God's favour, 
but becomes the famous nation of the earth, 
praised by all the peoples. There is a reverential 
worship of God by men of all the earth. 4 

Joel's intense message ties a tight knot on the 
end of this group of preexilic prophecies. As he 
writes Juclah is still in Jerusalem, and the tem- 
ple standing, but they are a vassal nation paying 
heavy tribute, and their northern kinsmen nation 
has quite gone, a disgraced captive in the 
Euphrates valley. 

Events are put in here in reverse order, the 
thing the Jew longs for put first, then the process 
by which it comes. The chief space and empha- 
sis are on the tremendous crisis through which 
things work out. There is to be a time of won- 
drous spiritual blessing in the world. It will be 

1 Verses 9 and 13. 2 Verse 13. 

8 Zephaniah 3 : 8-20. * Zephaniah 2 : 1 1. 



The Evidence in the Case 193 

through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on 
all flesh, 1 

This is the passage Peter quotes on Pente- 
cost. But clearly this is more than Pentecost 
saw. That was only a beginning: this is to be 
the full, the real thing. Then the spirit was 
indeed poured out on all classes of men. But 
this speaks of His being poured out actually upon 
all the race. The Jew would be given the place 
of leadership in this new movement. It is their 
young and old people who are the seers and 
prophets. 

In connection with this there are to be startling, 
miraculous happenings in both the heavens and 
the earth, terrible to those experiencing them. 2 
The sun fails to shine. The moon is as blood. 
The stars cease shining, earthquakes and heaven- 
quakes occur together. In the midst of this 
Jerusalem would be the center of safety for those 
who would shelter there. 

All nations are to be gathered together at 
Jerusalem. There is to be an execution of judg- 
ment upon them in the long, deep valley of 
Jehoshaphat lying to the east of Jerusalem. The 
Jew listening would be quick to note the play 
on the name Jehoshaphat, the valley "of God's 
judgment, ' ' which runs through the third chap- 
ter. "The valley of decision'' is the valley of 
God's decision, or judgment. The judgment is 
in vindication of the Jew, righting the wrongs 
done him. It will be by means of a direct 

1 Joel 2 : 28-29. 2 Joel 3 : 1-16. 



194 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

supernatural interposition of God's own presence 
and power. 

Then comes the new nation of the Jews, a puri- 
fied, chastened, holy people, dwelling in a land of 
renewed fertility. And God Himself dwells in 
their midst at Jerusalem. Here then is the same 
connected grouping put very intensely. A crisis 
of judgment upon the Jew, at the hand of the 
nations, is turned into a terrific crisis of judg- 
ment upon the organized nations. Then follows 
a restored Jew, radically changed in character, 
and a changed world, with the Holy Spirit 
poured out upon all men. It is a new wondrous 
order of things with the Jew nation in the lead. 

The Messages of the Night. 

Then there come the later messages as the long 
night settles down dark and gloomy over the 
Jewish nation. There are six books in this 
group, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, 
Obadiah and Nahum. Lamentations is the bitter 
sob over the desolate Jerusalem. Obadiah is a 
message to Edom, and Nahum to Nineveh. 

Jeremiah has a permanent place in literature 
as having one outstanding characteristic. His 
name has given a word in our dictionaries, 
jeremiad, an utterance of great grief, but used 
critically, as though the thing were overdone, or 
as giving a certain satisfaction to the one ex- 
pressing it. 

Yet there could be no more unjust impression. 
Jeremiah's was not an oversensitive nature mor- 



The Evidence in the Case 195 

bidly sobbing over the plight of his people. He 
had rare political sagacity, keen discernment into 
national conditions and the inevitable outcome. 
He was utterly alone in this. Yet the after re- 
sults proved him right, he was the one man who 
sensed things right. 

He had the rare courage to tell what he clearly 
saw, and to urge the proper national policy, even 
though it brought him bitterest reproach, broken 
friendships and bodily persecution. His sobbing 
is that of a giant of strength and love over a 
situation which he had suffered everything ex- 
cept actual death to prevent. He lived to see 
the heart-breaking circumstances which he and 
he alone had foreseen come sadly true. 

He is absorbed chiefly, almost wholly, with the 
immediate, intense situation of the nation as it 
resists the enemy, and then is overcome and car- 
ried away. Yet from the first there are strains 
of a distant future. He lifts his eyes at times 
from the boiling political pot of his own day to 
see gleams of national light ahead, far ahead. 

In the very beginning he sees ' ' all the families 
of the kingdom of the earth' ' laying siege to 
Jerusalem. 1 This suggests a much broader move- 
ment than what actually happened in his own 
lifetime when the nation's exile began. But, as 
he is using this as a plea for national reform, al- 
most in the same breath he speaks of a wondrous 
future. 

All nations, in a new spirit of devotion to God, 
'Jeremiah 1 : 15. 



196 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

would assemble at Jerusalem as a new world- 
center, for reverent worship, and would call that 
city the throne of God. At that time there 
would be a reunited Jewish nation in the old 
Palestine homeland, and filling the place of spiri- 
tual leadership among the nations. 1 

In the same message he sees a time of judg- 
ment coming to the whole earth, with the heavens 
black, and earthquakes disturbing the mountains 
and hills. But it is distinctly said to be not a 
final judgment, but a crisis, looking forward to 
something else following. 2 

And again in the same connection he insists 
that the judgment coming to the Jew is not a 
final reckoning, but by inference to be followed 
by something radically different. 3 All this is at 
the beginning of his ministry. 

Then some twenty-three years later when the 
nation had become a sadly humiliated vassal to 
Egypt he swings again to the same theme. He 
has specified the period of exile as seventy years. 
Then he looks beyond this to something else, 
something much more sweeping. It is to be a 
visitation of judgment on all the nations of the 
earth. 

One by one they are named, then it is made 
clear that "all the kingdoms of the world" are 
meant. And then the king of Sheshach or Baby- 
lon is put at the climax. It is distinctly coupled 
with a visitation of judgment on the Jew. It is 

'Jeremiah 3 : 17-18. 2 Jeremiah 4 : 23-28. 

3 Jeremiah 5:18. 



The Evidence in the Case 197 

a settlement of a controversy between God and 
the nations. It is to be the righting of a long 
score of wrongs. 1 

Seven years later comes another distinctive bit 
of this sort. 2 Babylon had displaced Egypt as 
the conqueror of Israel, and two kings had been 
added to the exile colony in the Euphrates. This 
time it's a message of promise coupled with a 
yet more disastrous judgment. They are not 
only to return to the land of their fathers, but 
to " possess" it, that is, be an independent 
sovereign state. 

Yet there is something coming before that, 
something unspeakably worse than anything ex- 
perienced yet. The words point to a specific 
time and experience, a crisis of judgment rather 
than a long period of judgment. The crisis is 
coupled with a deliverance following. The yoke 
of bondage is to be broken, the scattered Jews are 
to be gathered from afar, and the Jewish nation 
restored under the royal house of David, with 
peace and prosperity and no sense of fear. 

And the deliverance in turn is coupled with a 
decisive crisis of judgment on all the nations 
whither the Jews have been scattered. This is 
said to be something that God has set His heart 
on doing, and it is to happen "in the latter 
days. ' ' 

Then follows what would be to a devout Jew a 
picture of the new order of things after this 

'Jeremiah 25:15-31. 
2 Jeremiah 30: 3-11, 20-24. 



198 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

double crisis of vindication. 1 The Jews are to 
be a thoroughly harmonious reunited nation in 
the land of Palestine. But it is to be a wholly 
changed, repentant, purified people with a pas- 
sionate devotion for God and His will. The city 
of Jerusalem will be rebuilt on the most extensive 
scale. It is to be a time of greatest joy. 

And one's Gentile ear is caught by this, that 
the Jew is to become the protector of the other 
nations. This is put in a simple, graphic way, 
very appealing to those who were experiencing 
the sore sorrows of the utterly broken captive 
nation. God would create a new thing in the 
earth; "a woman shall encompass (or compass) 
a man." 

The word encompass is the same as in the Song 
of Moses 2 where he speaks of God finding Israel 
in a desert in sore need, and "He compassed 
him about, he cared for him. ' ' The word under- 
neath means to compass, or put one 's arms about, 
in a loving, protective sense. 3 

Here it means that the renewed Jew nation, 
then weak physically as a woman character- 
istically is in comparison with a man, would be- 
come the strong nation, so acknowledged, pro- 
tecting the other nations even as a man protects 
a woman. There could be no more striking state- 
ment of the new position of strong leadership 
among the nations of the earth than this which 
it conceives the Jew as having. 

1 Jeremiah 31. 2 Deuteronomy 32: 10. 

3 See Gesenius' Lexicon. 



The Evidence in the Case 199 

And the startling character of all this sort of 
thing, its utter unbelievableness as things looked, 
is recognized in the brief paragraph where God 
solemnly reminds them of His creative power. 
It would take nothing less than such power as 
His to do such a thing as this. 

Ten years later yet there comes another strik- 
ing passage. 1 It is accompanied by a bit of intense 
realistic action. Jeremiah, at God's bidding, 
buys a bit of land in Palestine, and pays out the 
money, and has the deed carefully recorded. It 
would be about as unshrewd a thing as one could 
do. The city was even then being besieged. 
Heal estate was worthless. The thing was utterly 
non-Jewish commercially, sheer waste of good 
money, as things looked. But the leading is so 
clear that Jeremiah pays out his carefully 
counted money, assuredly reckoning that nothing 
is too hard for God. 

Money talked that time if ever. It recited the 
creed, — faith in God, when the storm hung 
blackest. To his fellow countrymen there could 
be no intenser way of emphasizing the thing 
Jeremiah was insisting on. It was this: the 
Jewish nation was to be restored as a free sov- 
ereign state. The people would be gathered out 
from all the countries where they were scattered. 
They would be a radically changed people. 

The capital city would become famous in the 
earth. The new Jewish nation would be recog- 
nized by all the nations, and recognized as a 
'Jeremiah 32 and 33. 



2oo The Deeper Meaning of the War 

signal evidence of God's power and faithfulness. 
The restoration would include the revival of 
the royal house of David. That is, there would 
be a king reigning of the Davidic lineage. And 
again the unlikeliness of this happening is recog- 
nized in the supernatural power of God required, 
even the same as preserves the rhythm of day 
and night, of the sun 's swing in the heavens. 

The book closes with a series of messages of 
denunciation about the nations surrounding 
Palestine. This series comes to a climax in a 
message to Babylon. 1 This might easily be sup- 
posed to refer wholly and only to the destruction 
of the Babylon of long ago, but for certain dis- 
tinct features and a certain grouping of events. 

There seems to be a sliding from nearer to 
farther events here in speaking of Babylon, and a 
movement from the city empire to the world sys- 
tem of evil. At the first the destruction of Babylon 
is by a group of nations, and can easily be identi- 
fied with the past history of the city and empire. 

But later Babylon is associated with "the 
nations" and "kingdoms," implying that all of 
them are intended, and is spoken of as the domi- 
nating leader of the nations that "made all the 
earth tremble: the nations have drunk of her 
wine ; therefore the nations are mad. ' ' 2 Indeed 
this grouping of the nations of the earth is desig- 
nated as Babylon. It is one of the numerous 
suggestions in the prophetic pages that the name 
Babylon is used for the whole organized world 

Jeremiah 50 and 51. 2 Jeremiah 51: 7. 



The Evidence in the Case 201 

system of evil. The destruction of Babylon the 
system is sweeping, decisive, final. 

At the same time with this there is a restora- 
tion of the Jew nation. They come to Palestine 
in a deeply penitent mood, such as has never 
marked the Jewish people since their captivity. 
It is a reunited harmonious Jewry. It is a 
spiritually regenerated people, wholly and 
radically changed in attitude toward God. Four 
times this judgment upon Babylon in connection 
with the restoration of the Jew is spoken of as 
"the vengeance of the Lord," "the vengeance 
of His temple, ' ' that is, the righting of wrong. 1 

It is yet more striking that the Jew nation is 
the means used in the destruction of Babylon. 
This is explicitly stated in a remarkable passage. 2 
The power of God is spoken of in contrast with 
the idols, and then it says "the portion (or share 
or allotment) of Israel (i. e., God) is not like 
these (idols). For He is the maker of all things 
(named above)." . . . Then God says to 
Israel "thou art my battle-axe and weapons of 
war. 

"With thee will I break in pieces the nations; 
and with thee will I destroy kingdoms ; and with 
thee will I break in pieces the horse and his 
rider," and so on, the "with thee" being used 
nine times in a way peculiarly impressive and 
emphatic. 

While Jeremiah is the prophet of the break-up 

'Jeremiah 50:15, 28; 51:6, 11. 
2 Jeremiah 51 : 15-26. 



202 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

time in the homeland, Ezekiel is God 's messenger 
to the people in exile. His active ministry runs 
through some twenty-two years. His messages 
are a blend of denunciation and pleading. He 
had to resort to personally heroic measures to get 
a hearing. It suggests how utterly hardened the 
people were, how unchanged in spirit by their 
experiences. 

Near the beginning of his activity this stands 
out: there is to be a crisis in which God would 
be acting on their behalf. It is a double crisis, 
of "wrath poured out" on their behalf, that is 
against their enemies, and of judgment upon 
themselves. 1 As the direct result of this they 
would be restored to their homeland, a wholly 
renewed people, utterly changed in spirit, ac- 
ceptable as a sweet savour to God, who Himself 
would be King over them. 

Some five years later word came to the exiled 
colony that the final siege of Jerusalem had come, 
and the city fallen. A special message is given 
Ezekiel, in which this occurs, 2 — the exiled nation 
is to be restored. The restoration is to be under 
the old David dynasty. But it is to be a radically 
changed nation, made over new inside. God 
Himself will dwell in their midst, indicating that 
they are pleasing to Him. They would be a 
sovereign state again, wholly free from their 
enemies, with peace and contentment, and the 
land enjoying renewed fertility. Not only would 

1 Ezekiel 20:33-38, 40-44. 
"Ezekiel 33:23-31. 



The Evidence in the Case 203 

their reproach be gone, but they would be re- 
nowned, famous among the nations. 

A little later all this is repeated, with many 
variations, and this additional bit ; their restora- 
tion would be recognized by all nations as God's 
own direct action in supernatural power. And 
as a direct result there would be a changed atti- 
tude toward God among the nations. 1 

Then there comes the dramatic vision or para- 
ble of the dry bones. 2 There is a broad valley 
full of dry bones, many bones and very dry. 
Then the bones come together fitting naturally, 
and are covered with flesh, but there is no life. 
Then the breath comes in and they are a great 
living company of people. So it is indicated 
that the nation is to be made over wholly new 
by the direct breath of God. This would be a 
world event, so recognized by all the nations. 

There is, too, the possible hint or foreshadow- 
ing here that the scattered denationalized Jews 
would some day be renationalized before the 
spiritual change came through the direct touch 
of God. It is as though through God's over- 
ruling providence, but by their own effort with- 
out repentance toward God, they would again be- 
come a nation before their restoration by God's 
intervention. 

Then there is a remarkable group of para- 
graphs regarding events that are clearly future 
if taken at their first meaning. 8 It points to a 

'Ezekiel 36:21-36. 2 Ezekiel 37. 

8 Ezekiel 38 and 39. 



204 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

tremendous time of crisis in Palestine for the 
Jew first, and then for their enemies at the time, 
a double crisis. It is followed by the Jew, utterly- 
changed in character, being established as a 
nation in Palestine. And the whole thing be- 
comes famous among the nations of the earth 
as God's direct supernatural interposition on 
behalf of the Jew. 

Look a bit closer at this. There's an armed 
invasion of Palestine. It is at a time when the 
Jew nation is in possession there, and in quiet 
security not suspecting nor fearing any danger. 
The attack is by a group of nations from the 
uttermost parts of the north. The names given 
are easily recognized as of the land now known 
as Russia. This nation or group of nations are 
joined in their attack by others, "even many 
peoples. ' ' Persia and Ethiopia are among those 
specified. They are an immense horde. They 
come "as a cloud,' ' so many of them. It is 
clearly a terrific overwhelming movement. 

Then the second phase comes. The attack is 
repelled by what is clearly supernatural action. 
There is a tremendous earthquake, with a terrific 
storm of rain and hail and lightning. Discord 
breaks out in the ranks of the attacking force, 
and they take to fighting each other. The whole 
thing ends in a terrible defeat and utter rout 
of the enemies of the Jew. 

Then the Jew is established securely in his own 
land, but it is a new Jew nation, utterly changed 
in spirit, wholly devoted in heart to God. And 



The Evidence in the Case 205 

the whole movement is common talk among the 
peoples of the earth. It will be seen that God 
has been acting directly in the affairs of earth 
in a startling supernatural manner, and has 
been righting the wrongs done His people. By 
inference there is a new order of things on the 
earth. The Jew is in the place of chief promi- 
nence. But the peoples everywhere acknowledge 
the power and presence of God in a way com- 
monly unknown before. 

The last section of the book ' is a highly ideal- 
ized description of the Jew nation settled again 
in Palestine, of the city of Jerusalem, and of the 
temple, as the dwelling place of God Himself. 
It is similar in kind to what has already been 
found, but immensely greater in degree, ideal- 
ized in every way to the highest point. 

Daniel was taken with the captives to Baby- 
lon while still a youth. He remained there at 
least into the third year of Cyrus, a period of 
eighty-one years. If he had been only twelve at 
the beginning he must have lived to a very ripe 
old age. It was in his matured old age that most 
of the messages came with which we are con- 
cerned. 

His book falls into two parts ; certain outstand- 
ing incidents of his career make up the first six 
chapters, and then four remarkable visions deal- 
ing with the future of his people and of the 
whole world make up the second six chapters. 

It was early in his career and the turning- 
1 Ezekiel 40-48. 



206 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

point in his public career, that he interpreted 
Nebuchadnezzar's forgotten dreams of the great 
image. And this proves to be intimately allied 
with the great visions of his later years, and 
indeed to be a background for them, a distinct 
foreshadowing of the broad outlines of the de- 
tailed four visions which make up the latter half 
of the book. 

The dream and its interpretation * give a broad 
sweep of history from the reign of the Babylon 
autocrat of that day on to a time in the future 
when there would be a wholly new, different sort 
of kingdom on the earth, set up by supernatural 
intervention, and to be world-wide. Through 
that long stretch of time there were to be four 
great successive world-kingdoms, or phases of 
world-empire, each with certain marked char- 
acteristics. 

Then there would come a sharp crisis. It 
would come through supernatural action. "A 
stone cut out without hands" smites the image. 
There would be established by God Himself a 
kingdom completely overthrowing these preced- 
ing kingdoms, taking their place and having an 
authoritative rule in the whole earth. 

Here is the repetition of the outline with 
which we have become familiar, namely, a new 
order of things on the earth, preceded or ushered 
in by what is evidently a terrific crisis. And in 
this crisis the preceding world system of gov- 
ernment is swept away. This image fits so ex- 
1 Daniel 2. 



The Evidence in the Case 207 

actly into the succession of Babylonian, Medo- 
Persian, Grecian and Roman kingdoms that it 
has been universally so accepted by scholars, 
some rationalistic critics thinking this so plain 
that they claim it was written long after the 
successive kingdoms had passed into history. 

Now a look at the first vision of the four. 1 In 
this vision Daniel sees four beasts come up on 
the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, one after 
the other. The last beast has ten horns, then 
develops an eleventh, which displaces three of 
the original ten and dominates the remaining 
seven. This last horn has ' ' eyes like the eyes of 
a man, and a mouth speaking great things. ' ' 

Then there comes a sharp crisis. A new sort 
of throne appears, clearly not of man but of God. 
It casts down these men's thrones. The beast, 
with the dominating eleventh horn, is slain. 
And then there is a new sort of world govern- 
ment or dominion, reigned over by one called * ' a 
Son of Man.' ' 

The interpretation very simply says that there 
would be four kings or kingdoms in the earth, 
and that they would be displaced by a kingdom 
of "the saints of the Most High," which to 
Daniel meant only one thing, the Jews. Then 
follows detailed information about the fourth 
kingdom, and its ruler, which are displaced by 
the wholly new order, the Jew kingdom. It will 
be noted how the broad outline fits into the 
dream of the great image in chapter two, namely, 
1 Daniel 7. 



208 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

four successive kingdoms, a crisis, and then a 
wholly new sort of kingdom ruling the world. 

The characteristics of the fourth kingdom, 
which produces this outstanding king, are of in- 
tense interest. It is aggressive to a terrific ex- 
tent. It breaks down and devours and destroys 
ruthlessly. This is its chief trait. At the close 
it develops into a ten-kingdomed state or confed- 
eracy. And then under the influence of its 
last ruler, it becomes an eight-kingdomed coali- 
tion. 

The chief attention centers on this last king. 
His personality is most striking. He has un- 
usual eyes. His "look" or appearance is ag- 
gressive, dominating or domineering to an ex- 
treme. But the most striking feature is his 
speech. It is bold and blasphemous, startlingly 
so. It is this that becomes the immediate cause 
of his downfall. He is proud, defiant, aggressive, 
self-assertive, especially against God and against 
the Jews. He plans to make radical changes in 
"the times and the law," referring apparently 
to some upsetting rearrangement of the common 
adjustments of the calendar and the seasons. 

His career is as striking as his person. He 
begins in a small way, increasing gradually in 
power until he becomes the absolute autocrat of 
this fourth kingdom. He forges to the front 
after the kingdom has taken the shape of a ten- 
kingdomed confederacy. It is under his rule 
that this fourth kingdom develops its dreadful 
characteristics of devouring and smashing down 



The Evidence in the Case 209 

all opposition. He makes war on the Jew, who 
seems the special object of his malignant hatred, 
and who suffers sorely under his cruel tyranny. 
But there is a distinct limit set to his career. 
It continues "time, times and half a time." 

Then comes the sharp crisis in his career. He 
is killed by some supernatural intervention. 
And his kingdom goes to pieces. In its place 
comes a new kingdom, a new sort of kingdom. 
It is world-wide, including all peoples and lan- 
guages. It is said to be the kingdom of the Jew, 
that is, "of the peoples of the saints of the Most 
High." Yet it is also spoken of as the kingdom 
of one who "comes with the clouds/ ' "like 
unto a Son of Man." 

It will be noticed that the natural inference 
would be that these four kingdoms would cover 
the whole range of history from the kingdom 
then ruling until the new different sort of God- 
kingdom was set up. And this inference is 
strengthened by the teaching of the great image 
in chapter two. The two run parallel in this. 

The second vision 1 comes about two years later, 
or possibly a little less. In this Daniel sees a 
two-horned ram pushing irresistibly toward the 
west, the north, and the south. It is slain by 
the fierce onset of a he-goat with a notable horn 
which runs a brief, aggressive, dominant career. 
Then the notable horn is broken, four horns take 
its place. And then a little horn comes up 
which becomes very great and makes special and 
1 Daniel 8. 



210 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

successful attack upon the Jews and their temple 
and its sacrificial worship. 

The interpretation says plainly that the ram 
represents the Medo-Persian kingdom, and the 
he-goat, Greece. It will be noted that this vision 
fits into the same general outline as the first. 
There is a vindication of the Jew, indicated by 
the cleansing or justifying of his temple in Jeru- 
salem. It is preceded by a terrific crisis for the 
Jew which centers at Jerusalem and in the tem- 
ple. The chief points of contact between the 
first and second vision is this crisis immediately 
preceding a new Jewish order, and particularly 
the personality and career of the notable king 
who is the leader against the Jew in this 
crisis. 

The personality of this king is most striking. 
He has an unusual face, ' ' of fierce countenance. ' ' 
The word underneath means harsh, stern. He is 
hard of face, impudent, shameless, merciless, not 
influenced by human amenities. All this is in- 
cluded in the language used. He has under- 
standing of "dark sentences." That is, he is 
studiously skilled in entangled intricate sen- 
tences, tricky, crafty, double-meaninged sentences. 
He is assertive to an outstanding degree, blas- 
phemously assertive, magnifying himself "even 
to the prince of the host" (of heaven). 

There is a strange uncanny phase that makes 
one rub his eyes to see if he is seeing straight. 
It is the distinct suggestion, not only that he is 
in alliance with Satan, but that he himself is not 



The Evidence in the Case 211 

merely human, but a blend of an evil spirit and 
a human being. For his activity extends to the 
spirits of the unseen upper spirit-world. He 
became ''great, even to the host of heaven; and 
some of the host (of heaven) he cast down to 
the ground and trampled upon them." It is 
plainly said twice that his might is "not by his 
own power. " His is a strange personality. 

Note Ms career. He begins as king of Greece, 
in a small way. He becomes exceeding great 
in three directions, presumably from Greece, to- 
ward the south and the east and Palestine, "the 
glorious land." Then it tells of his strange 
activity in the upper spirit world. He is 
blasphemously, defiantly assertive even to the 
prince of the host (of heaven), that is against 
God Himself. He makes special attack against 
the Jew, striking at the thing dearest to the 
Jewish heart, the sacrifices of the temple. For 
he takes away the ' ' continual, ' ' that is, the daily 
sacrifices. 

This implies that at the time of his activity 
the Jew is organized as a nation, there is a Jew- 
ish temple or place of worship, and the old Jew- 
ish system of daily sacrifices is in force again. 
It is striking to note that it is because of "trans- 
gression" (that is by men, the Jews) that he is 
able to accomplish his purpose in taking away 
the daily sacrifice. 

He "cast down truth to the ground," so 
revealing the very genius of the Satan spirit. 
That is, he makes deceit and lying a cursed com- 



2 1 2 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

monplaee. " And he did and prospered." That 
is, he has power to run riot in his career, driving 
through his purposes and plans without suc- 
cessful hindrance. He comes to his end super- 
naturally, not by human or ordinary means. He 
is ' ' broken without hand. " It is the same phrase 
as is used of the stone that destroys the great 
world kingdom, in chapter two. 

The length of time of his desecration of the 
temple is specified as twenty-three hundred 
"evenings and mornings." The statement is 
striking, exceptional. There is the distinct 
touch of what would humanly be called genius 
in this statement in order to make the exact 
meaning clear. The word year is not a fixed 
term. The length of time the word indicates has 
varied much in the past. The word day has 
many and varying meanings. But "evenings 
and mornings" could mean only so many actual 
days. 

There is here the distinct intimation of a 
restoration of the Jewish kingdom. For the 
sanctuary or temple is cleansed or justified. The 
temple stood and stands for the very heart of 
Jewish ideals and life. A temple vindicated 
after being insultingly desecrated would carry 
with it the whole idea of the Jewish kingdom 
restored. All this is said to happen in the latter 
time of the world kingdom "when the trans- 
gressors are come to the full." The extreme 
fullness of the cup makes it spill out, 

It seems beyond question that this strange 



The Evidence in the Case 213 

notorious king in both of these visions is the 
same. In the second vision he comes out of the 
kingdom of Greece. In the first vision he comes 
to the head of the ten-kingdomed confederacy 
which succeeds to the world sovereignty after 
the Greek sway. 

It is of interest to recall the run of Greece 
history here. After the death of Alexander the 
Great, the outstanding king of Greek history, 
his kingdom was divided among four of his 
generals. For centuries Greece was non-existent 
as a sovereign state. It came under Roman 
rule, and then Venetian. It was simply a prov- 
ince of the Turkish empire for some centuries. 
But in 1832 it was put again on the map as an 
independent kingdom, and so remains. This is 
of intense interest to the student of God's 
prophetic word. 

The third vision l proves to be simply further 
information about the second. Gabriel explains 
that he has come to make Daniel understand the 
vision yet more clearly. It gives the point in 
Jewish history where this terrific crisis comes, 
and gives also the Jewish situation at the time. 

Daniel is praying because he has figured out 
that the seventy years of their national captivity, 
as foretold by Jeremiah, are about closing. This 
is the point of contact with Gabriel's explana- 
tion. Gabriel says that " seventy weeks are de- 
creed" et cetera. The word weeks has, under- 
neath, the Hebrew word for "sevens." Tracing 
1 Daniel 9, especially verses 21 to the end. 



214 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

its use throughout the Bible it is used sometimes 
for a seven of days and sometimes for a seven of 
years, depending on the sense of the passage. 
Here it seems clearly to mean the latter. Daniel 
is thinking of seventy years, he tells us. Gabriel 
says there is to be a future period of seventy 
sevens of years into which the vision fits. 

There was to be a period of seventy sevens of 
years of Jewish history before the new order of 
things, the blessed restoration of the Jew king- 
dom. This is broken up into three parts, seven 
sevens, sixty-two sevens, and then a final seven. 
At the close of this whole period the wondrous 
climax of blessing is reached. Sin would have 
been judged, a new order of righteousness in- 
troduced, all the prophecies fulfilled, and, chief 
of all, the most Holy One anointed as King. 

Now this seventy-sevens period is adjusted to 
the time when the blasphemous Jew-hating king 
would be in action. Sixty-nine sevens would 
run by. Then ' ' the Anointed One ' ' is " cut off. ' ' 
Then the blasphemous king appears, makes a 
firm or strong covenant or treaty with many 
(Jews) for one seven. In the middle of this 
period he abruptly breaks the treaty, stops the 
daily sacrifices, and takes some extreme step in 
the temple which is regarded as the very climax 
of blasphemy. And later both the temple and 
the city of Jerusalem are destroyed. 

Now the cutting off of the Anointed One is 
easily recognized as the crucifixion of Jesus. 
This becomes a clear point of contact with actual 



The Evidence in the Case 215 

history. The period of sixty-nine sevens comes 
to a close then, according to Gabriel's explana- 
tion, leaving a period of seven years yet in the 
future. Clearly at the time of this last seven 
years the Jews are organized as a nation in 
Palestine, making a treaty, with the temple 
standing and the sacrifices being offered. 

Now the fact that this has not occurred yet 
since the death of Jesus pushes all this group of 
events distinctly into the future. It is of much 
interest to note that this makes a gap between 
the sixty-ninth and the seventieth seven. A long 
gap running now nearly nineteen full centuries. 

And this gives clearly the Jewish situation 
when this terrible blasphemous king appears. 
The Jew is in his own land, he is nationalized, 
and making a treaty. The temple is standing, 
and the sacrifices being offered. This suggests 
that in these prophetic pages the chronology of 
the Jew naturally is reckoned only when he is 
organized as a nation. 

It also makes clear that the vision takes ac- 
count of historical events up to the crucifixion, 
then ignores the long gap, and again picks up 
the thread clear at the end when the Jew is 
again renationalized. And this seems to be the 
common rule in all these prophetic writings. 
Account is taken of world events only when the 
Jew is a nation. 

It will be remembered that the four kingdoms 
of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and of Daniel's first 
vision, commonly recognized as Babylonian, 



2 1 6 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

Medo-Persian, Grecian and Roman, cover the 
whole swing of history from that time until the 
new sort of divine kingdom is set up. As the 
final break-up of the Jew nation, following the 
crucifixion, occurred in the time of the Roman 
kingdom, this would make this long gap, when the 
course of history is ignored or omitted, come in 
the time of the Roman kingdom. That is, from 
the point of view of these visions, the world 
power in control when the Jew renationalizes, is 
seen as the continuation of the Roman power. 

And the vision closes with the assurance that 
this blasphemous desolator is finally and deci- 
sively judged and disposed of and so the dreadful 
crisis is over. 

The fourth vision is the longest and the fullest 
of the series. 1 The broad outline is the same as 
the other three. There is to be a future full 
deliverance for the Jew from all his troubles. 
It is preceded by a terrific crisis, and this crisis 
centers in a blasphemous Jew-hating king. This 
fits the fourth vision into place as the last of a 
series covering the same events, and giving much 
additional information. 

There are three parts to the vision : the intro- 
duction, chapter 10 : 1 to 11 : 1. The vision 
proper is in chapter 11 : 2 to 12 : 4 inclusive. 
And there are added bits of information of in- 
tense interest in chapter twelve, verse five to 
the end. 

Almost a third of the whole space is given to 
1 Daniel 10-12. 



The Evidence in the Case 217 

a description of the interview between Daniel 
and his informant. 1 In the first vision an un- 
named person talks with Daniel. In the second 
and third it is Gabriel who explains. This fourth 
is a step up. The one who explains here seems 
clearly divine. The resemblance with the de- 
scription of the glorified Jesus in the first chapter 
of the Revelation of John is strikingly identical. 
It suggests the importance with which the 
whole matter treated here is held by God Him- 
self. 

The center of attention here is the personality 
and career of the blasphemous king of the other 
visions. As in the second vision he is connected 
at the beginning with the kingdom of Greece, 
and also appears as the king of the north, in a 
warfare between north and south, which rages 
at the east end of the Mediterranean, including 
Palestine, apparently as the roadway through. 
The treaty made by him with the Jew nation is 
mentioned six times, so making his identity quite 
clear. 

There is a group of events, 2 with Palestine 
figuring prominently as the scene of action, be- 
fore the seven year treaty is made with the Jew 
nation. It suggests that probably the Jew re- 
nationalization has been effected some time before 
the covenant is made. 

In this group of events there is an alinement 
of warring forces, north and south, at the eastern 
end of the Mediterranean, with success swinging 

1 Daniel 10:1-11:1. 2 Daniel 11:5-20. 



218 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

from one side to the other, hut leaving the king 
of the north in a strong lead. In this conflict 
vast forces are involved. During this conflict 
some of the Jews take sides, thinking to carry out 
the prophesied future of their nation, but they 
fail. 

The long gap of time alluded to, the Gentile 
gap, which the visions ignore because the Jew 
is not a nation seems to occur in this case between 
verses four and five of chapter eleven. 

At chapter eleven, verse twenty-one, we come 
to the direct point of contact with Daniel's other 
visions, that is, the terrible end-time king comes 
on the scene here as the king of the north. 

In the first vision he appears at the head of 
the fourth of the four great kingdoms. In the 
second he comes out of the kingdom of Greece. 
Here at the beginning he is connected with the 
kingdom of Greece, and then later appears as the 
king of the north in the conflict between north 
and south. In Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39, it is 
huge hordes from the Russian countries, in com- 
bination with other nationalities, that invade 
Palestine in the attack upon the Jew, in the 
same grouping of crisis and Jewish restoration. 

It seems to indicate that this outstanding end- 
time king comes out of the kingdom of Greece, 
succeeds to the leadership of the eight-kingdomed 
confederacy; that this is chiefly a northern con- 
federacy, the standpoint of the compass being the 
Mediterranean, and either includes the Russian 
countries, or has alliance with them. 



The Evidence in the Case 219 

It may help to note the style of recital here. 
There is first a general summary of the earlier 
part of the career of this king in chapter eleven, 
verse twenty-two. Then follows a detailed re- 
cital in order of events as they occur until this 
king meets his end. This runs through chapter 
eleven, verse twenty-three to the end of the 
chapter. Then there's a brief summary of the 
period as seen in the upper spirit world, identi- 
fying all this as the time of trouble foretold for 
the Jew, and giving closing events connected 
with his deliverance. This is chapter twelve, 
verses one to four. 

Now a look at the personality of this king as 
given here. He is described as a contemptible 
person, one to be despised, possibly with refer- 
ence to his lack of moral traits. He is self- 
willed, assertive, and blasphemously egotistical, 
magnifying himself above all gods, and utterly 
unscrupulous morally. 

His career: he is not chosen originally as king, 
but seems to slip into that position by cunning 
flatteries, in a time of quiet and security. The 
chief events in his career, so far as noted here, 
are given in five successive stages. He makes a 
successful attempt to strengthen himself with 
the newly formed Jew nation by a league ; then 
apparently by attack working one group against 
another by bribes and spoils of battle. In this 
way he practically gets control. Possibly this is 
simply preparatory to what follows, for he goes 
through Palestine (which is possibly a neutral or 



220 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

buffer state) on his way to attack the king of 
the south. 1 

The attack is successful, and he returns 
through Palestine with great spoil and now his 
heart is against the covenant with the Jew, possi- 
bly as of no further use to him, and not to be 
allowed to hamper his purposes. Again the 
phrase occurs, ''he shall do," seeming to indi- 
cate, as before, that he drives through his plans 
roughshod regardless of consequences to others. 2 

He makes a second attack against the south, 
this time unsuccessful, returns north through 
Palestine, and vents his disappointment and 
rage against the Jew, breaking the seven-year 
treaty, again driving through roughshod and 
strengthening the party among the Jews that 
sides with him against the treaty. 

It is at this time that he stops the daily sacri- 
fices, profanes the temple in the extreme manner 
spoken of as setting up "the abomination that 
maketh desolate,' ' and begins a persecution of 
the Jews. It is a time of sore stress. 3 

Then he reaches the height of his career. His 
arrogant self-assertive blasphemy seems to reach 
its highest point at this time. Utterly lacking in 
moral scruples, he stops at nothing to strengthen 
himself and drive through his plans. 4 

Then at the last 6 he meets an attack by the 
king of the south. He comes "like a whirlwind," 

1 Daniel 1 1 : 23-24. 2 Daniel 1 1 : 25-28. 

8 Daniel II : 29-35. * Daniel II : 36-39. 

5 Daniel 11 .-40-45. 



The Evidence in the Case 221 

with great military and naval forces, overrun- 
ning Palestine on his way south, and meeting 
with great though not complete success. Bad 
news turns him back toward the north "with 
great fury." And he pitches his tents at 
Jerusalem. 1 And at this point he comes to his 
end, the inference seems to be, suddenly. 

Then comes a brief summary of this period as 
seen in the upper spirit world. 2 There are five 
items in the summary. Michael the great spirit 
prince, who is the special advocate in God's 
presence of the Jew, stands up on the Jew's 
behalf in the upper spirit realm, suggesting a 
spirit conflict there. On the earth it would be 
the most troublous time ever experienced since 
there was a nation. It is at this time that the 
deliverance and restoration of the Jew occurs. 

There is to be a partial resurrection of the 
dead. Tregelles the famous English scholar 
gives this translation of verse two: "and many 
from among the sleepers of the dust of the earth 
shall awake; these (that awake) shall be unto 
everlasting life; but those (the rest of the sleep- 
ers) shall be unto shame and everlasting con- 
tempt." And those who have been true to 
God, and been teachers of His truth and in- 
sistent on His ideals, shall be leaders in the new 
order of things. 

Then Daniel is told to seal up his writing as 
all this belongs to a time in the future, "the time 

1 " Between the seas at the glorious holy mountain." 
2 Daniel 12:1-4. 



222 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

of the end." And he is further told the two 
common characteristics of the age preceding all 
this. There would be intense activity of move- 
ment on the earth, and great increase of human 
knowledge. 

Now follows an added bit to the vision, a sort 
of sequel, giving further detailed information. 1 
The length of time of the terrible crisis would be 
"for a time, times, and a half," 2 that is, three 
and a half years. 8 The utter breaking in pieces 
of the Jew so that he could no longer resist 
would be the end. 

Again certain moral characteristics of the age 
preceding all this are given. There would be a 
moral intensifying, both bad and good toward 
the end. The pure would become purer. The 
wicked grow more wicked. The thoughtful, 
reverent student of God's word would under- 
stand the significance of these events as they 
work out, but the common crowd would not 
understand. 

Then there is a future period of time specified. 
There would run twelve hundred and ninety 
days from the time the daily sacrifice is taken 
away and the desecrating abomination set up in 

1 Daniel 12: 5 to the close. 

2 The phrase occurs twice in Daniel (7:25; 12:7) 
and in Revelation 12: 14. In this latter case it is used 
as an equivalent phrase for 1260 days used in verse 
6 of that chapter. 

8 Gesenius Hebrew Lexicon. " For a year, also two 
years, and half a year." 



The Evidence in the Case 223 

the temple. Then there would be something of 
a blessed sort at the end of thirteen hundred and 
thirty-five days. 

That is, the persecution of the Jew would run 
twelve hundred and sixty days, the equivalent 
of three and a half years. And then there would 
be a further seventy-five days after the perse- 
cution had stopped. And this is broken up into 
two parts, thirty days and then forty-five days 
more. And this would bring something very 
blessed to the man waiting, earnestly, steadily, 
strongly, believingly waiting through all ob- 
stacles. 

All this is spoken of repeatedly as coming "in 
the latter days' ' or at "the end of the days." 
It will be noted that Daniel's visions quite fit in 
with what has gone before, and give most space 
to the crisis and the terrible king ruling then. 

It will be further noted that there is a sort 
of limited calendar given of that specified time 
more full and explicit than before. The perse- 
cution of the Jew runs through twelve hundred 
and sixty days. Then apparently the power of 
the persecuting king is broken, or, at least, the 
persecution of the Jew ends. Then follows a 
period of seventy-five days with a glad result 
for the waiting devout Jew. 

From the desecration of the temple until it is 
" cleansed' ' is to be twenty-three hundred even- 
ings and mornings. That is, there would be 
twelve hundred and sixty days of persecution, 
seventy-five of special events not named after 



224 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

the persecution is slopped, and then a further 
period of two years, eight months and five days 
(reckoning thirty days to a month), a period 
apparently of readjustment before the new 
Jewish order is in full swing in Jerusalem. 

The one-chaptered Obadiah is a message to 
the neighbouring nations of Edom. It speaks of 
a judgment coming to "all the nations," and 
connects it directly with a restoration of the Jew 
nation, as a purified holy nation, closely asso- 
ciated with God Himself. 

Ndhum is a message to Nineveh. It connects 
a terrific supernatural judgment coming on the 
enemies of the Jews, with a full happy restora- 
tion of the Jew nation. 



The Messages of the Slow Breaking Dawn. 

Now there remains the small group of books 
that grew up after the return from the Babylon 
exile, the post-exilic messages. There are four 
of these, Haggai, Zechariah, the second part of 
Isaiah, and Malachi. The thousands who have 
returned from exile to Palestine are still in sub- 
jection to Babylonian authority. Their situa- 
tion is full of perplexities and difficulties. 

Haggai comes first. Under his urgings the 
building of the temple has begun. He encour- 
ages the workers by reminding them of God's 
wondrous plans for the nation. There is coming 
a great shake-up in the heavens and in the earth 
and among all the nations. In connection with 



The Evidence in the Case 225 

this there is some One coming through whom 
will come great glory to the temple and so to the 
nation. And He would bring peace. 

The description of the One coming is unique. 
The fair translation seems to be "the Desire/ ' 
or "the One desired or delighted in by all na- 
tions." 1 The shake-up or overthrow is to be of 
the organized governmental world-system, "the 
throne of the kingdoms'' and "the strength of 
the kingdoms of the nations." Militarism will 
be overthrown. And the despised Jew nation 
ruling among and over the nations is to be God's 
sign or evidence of authority and power. 2 

Zechariah overlaps Haggai, the two men giv- 
ing their messages at the same time. There is 
to be a time of judgment on the nations, which 
have "plundered" the Jew, and through this the 
Jew would come into his own. God Himself 
would dwell in the midst of the restored Jew 
nation. There would be a change of heart among 
the peoples, many coming voluntarily to Jewish 
leadership. And all this comes by direct action 
of God, who is "waked up" to right the wrongs 
of earth. 3 

The promised restoration of the Jew as a puri- 
fied nation is to be through a king coming of 
Jewish stock. 4 This coming king is to be a priest- 
king, and under his rule distant nations would 
ally themselves voluntarily in building up the 

1 Haggai 2 : 6-9. 2 Haggai 2 : 21-23. 

3 Zechariah 2 : 8-13. 

4 The entire third chapter ; note verses 8 and 9. 



226 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

Jew nation. 1 Jerusalem would be commonly 
spoken of as "the city of truth" and "the holy 
mountain," the land would enjoy greatly in- 
creased fertility, and the Jew would become a 
blessing among all the nations who had reckoned 
him a curse. The nations would recognize God's 
blessing upon the new Jew nation as a thing so 
marked that there would be a great eagerness to 
be allied with the Jew. 2 

Then comes the famous classic bit, which is 
quoted in connection with Christ's entry into 
Jerusalem that last tragic week: "Behold thy 
king cometh . . . lowly, and riding upon an 
ass, even upon a colt the foal of an ass. ' ' But here 
with full kingly authority, He is seen destroy- 
ing militarism, speaking peace to the nations, 
and ruling them from the Euphrates clear to the 
outermost rims of the earth. 3 Then in a strik- 
ing bit the Jew is used as God's instrument of 
judgment on Greece. In the crisis of judgment 
God Himself is seen overhead, executing judg- 
ment, and delivering His people. 4 

At the close of Zechariah occurs a most re- 
markable passage running through chapters 
twelve to fourteen. Jerusalem is to become an 
occasion of judgment on all the nations of earth 
gathered there. It is as though some irresistible 
fascination of hatred for the Jew had become a 
ruling passion among men. Through this judg-. 

1 Zechariah 6 : 12-1 5. 

2 Zechariah 8 : 3, 7, 13, 20-23. 

3 Zechariah 9 : 9-10. * Zechariah 9 : 13-17. 



The Evidence in the Case 227 

ment the Jew nation is to be fully delivered and 
restored. It is to be a radically changed nation. 

In the utmost extremity of their awful crisis 
the Jew would see some One coming out of the 
heavens for his deliverance. They would recog- 
nize Him as the one whom they had " pierced/ ' 
They would be filled with deepest penitence, 
through the spirit of grace poured out upon 
them. This is the substance of chapters twelve 
and thirteen. 

Then chapter fourteen goes back over the story 
with fuller detail. It is a day of Jehovah, a 
day of judgment on all nations. The nations 
are gathered against Jerusalem. There is a ter- 
rible siege of the city. Things go to the worst 
extreme. The city is taken, the houses looted, 
and all the unnameable horrors of war time run 
riot. 

Then comes the deliverance. It is by super- 
natural intervention. Jehovah Himself appears 
out of the heavens. He is attended by "all the 
holy ones." His feet stand on Olivet before 
Jerusalem on the east. There is a great earth- 
quake. Olivet splits into two halves toward the 
north and south, the line of cleavage running 
east and west. And so the Jews are delivered. 

The day when this happens is marked out as a 
strange, exceptional day in its outer appearance. 
It's a dark day. The sun fails to shine. It is 
not day, for the daylight 's gone. It is not night, 
for the clocks show daytime. Then at eventide 
the natural light comes back again. 



228 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

There's a complete change in the surface of the 
earth at Jerusalem, caused by the earthquake. 
Instead of the irrigating canals and pools by 
which the city has always got its water, there are 
rivers of living water flowing freely, loosened 
out by the tremendous upheaval. They flow 
west to the Mediterranean and east to the Dead 
Sea. They are perennial. They never run dry. 

God's method of making war or visiting judg- 
ment on the nations is outstandingly striking. 
There is a great tumult of discomfiture from God 
among the masses gathered against Jerusalem. 
They become terror-stricken. Their breakdown 
of self-confidence is complete. A strangely ter- 
rible fear seizes and holds them in a death-like 
grip. They take to fighting each other. There 
is a strange withdrawal of vitality from their 
bodies. 1 

This supernatural visitation of judgment on 
the armies of the nations gathered turns the 
tables for the Jews. They become victors 
through God's intervention, and gather the 
spoils, of which there is a great abundance, gold 
and silver and apparel. 

Then follows a new order of things on the 
earth. It is world-wide. The Jew becomes the 
premier nation. Jerusalem becomes the world 
capital. Annual pilgrimages are made there by 
all peoples for a holy harvest-home festival in the 
autumn. And this is taken as the touchstone of 

1 It is interesting to note here Judges 7: 22; 1 Sam- 
uel 14:20; 2 Chronicles 20:23. 



The Evidence in the Case 229 

loyalty to God. There will be failure of the 
common blessings of life for those failing in 
loyalty to God. 

But Jerusalem is a new kind of capital, never 
seen or known before. Its very atmosphere is a 
strong, earnest devotion to God. The commonest 
trait of all great cities, the characteristic trait 
of the Jew, commercialism, is quite gone. There 
is no more a Canaanite, that is, a trader, there. 
Instead the unselfish spirit of the Christ will 
dominate. 

Now, there is a very striking, tacit admission 
that all this sort of talk will seem like a mere 
Jew pipe-dream. It would seem the unlikeliest, 
the very last sort of thing that could occur. 
This tacit admission comes at the very beginning 
in the most solemn assurance of the entire relia- 
bility of this recital. It would all be done by the 
same creative power that was at work in the 
early creation time. 

We come now to the second section of Isaiah. 
It seems probable that this rare Spirit-swayed 
man of the return period may have made jour- 
neys back and forth, preaching now at Jeru- 
salem, and now to the colony of Jews at Babylon. 
There is a wooing message of rarest winsomeness 
and pleading earnestness calling to a new life. 
And there is also a constantly deepening bitter 
opposition to his messages and ministry. 

Much of what is in these pages of glorious 
future conditions might be supposed to refer 
only to the return from Babylon to Jerusalem at 



230 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

the close of the captivity, or to find fulfilment in 
the spread of the Christian faith in all the world. 
Yet there is even in such portions an intense 
realism and a glory of Jewish restoration that 
such explanations do not at all satisfy. But 
there are certain passages that stand sharply out 
as not yet being fulfilled in their simple, clear 
first meaning. There are some twelve of these. 

The Jew nation is to be used as a means of 
judgment on the nations in connection with its 
own restoration. 1 Further, under some coming 
leader it is to be a means of blessing to the na- 
tions, a blessing in which justice and truth, 
blended with gentleness, shall be established in 
the earth, and all evil conditions removed. 2 And 
in connection with this God would be dealing in 
judgment with the nations righting wrongs. 3 

The Jew nation itself is to be radically changed 
in character into a devout God-loving people 
through the Holy Spirit poured out upon it in 
the day of its restoration. 4 And certain other 
nations are to become tributary. 5 The Jew is to 
become the leading nation, all others being tribu- 
tary, and giving help in gathering the scattered 
Jews from all parts of the earth to Palestine. 
This would come about through a judgment of 
God upon the nations because of their previous 
treatment of the Jew. 6 

This thing of Jewish leadership is emphasized 

1 Isaiah 41 : 15, 16. 2 Isaiah 42 : 1-12. 

3 Isaiah 42 : 13-17. * Isaiah 44 : 3-5, 21-23. 

5 Isaiah 45 : 14. 6 Isaiah 49 : 22-26. 



The Evidence in the Case 231 

by repetition, 1 but it is to be a new kind of leader- 
ship; a teaching leadership. They are to be a 
teacher nation. 2 And the nations will come 
voluntarily and eagerly, and will give of their 
best to build up the Jew nation. 8 It is reiterated 
that all this new glorious order comes through 
a judgment on the nations on benalf of the Jew, 4 
followed by the Jewish leadership. 5 

The intensely dramatic dialogue in chapter 
sixty-three pictures God Himself with blood- 
reddened garments acting in judgment upon the 
nations, on behalf of the Jew. And the action 
of judgment is in connection with Edom. 6 Then 
there's another of the wondrous pictures of the 
new changed order of things. There is to be a 
marked increase of health, and in length of life, 
with a corresponding decrease in the sickness 
and weakness and disease that is epidemic every- 
where and always. There's to be a radical 
change in the lower animal creation. 7 

And the book ends with a distinct summing up 
climax, a dramatic climax. 8 There is a simple 
graphic description of a crisis of judgment at 
Jerusalem on the enemies of the Jew, as a vin- 
dicative of the Jew. Listen: "hear the word 
of the Lord, ye that reverently believe His word. 

1 Isaiah 54 : 3. 2 Isaiah 55:4. 

8 Isaiah 60 throughout ; note verses 1-5 ; 9-14, 16. 
* Isaiah 61 : 2-3. 5 Isaiah 61 14-9. 

6 Isaiah 62 : 11-63 : 9 an( * on at the end of chapter 63 
and into the next. 

7 Isaiah 65 : 19-25. 8 Isaiah 66 : 5-20. 



232 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

Your brothers that hate you, that cast you out 
for your loyalty to His word, they say ironically, 
sneeringly, 'Let Jehovah be glorified (as you 
believe) that we may see your triumph/ But 
it is they that shall be put to shame, not you. ' ' 

Then the coming day comes up before Isaiah's 
eye clear and distinct: "Hark! a voice of con- 
fused tumult from the city. Hark! an answer- 
ing voice from the temple! Ah! it is the voice 
of God rendering a well earned recompense to 
His enemies and yours.' ' And he goes on to 
assert that all this will come with unexpected 
suddenness when it does come. 

This crisis is to be followed by a remarkable 
leadership of the Jew among the nations. The 
judgment on the nations at this time is to be 
world-wide, a righteous vindication by God Him- 
self. All nations will come to recognize in it 
the goodness and power of God. 

And one's ear is caught with the distinct state- 
ment that the new order of things, the kingdom, 
is to be a time of world-wide evangelization. 
The Jew becomes God 's messenger to all nations, 
to the farthest extremes north and west and 
south and east, including those who have never 
heard of God, the great unevangelized majority. 
And these in turn come to love their Jewish 
missionaries and help in the movement to mag- 
nify Jerusalem, the city of God, where He dwells. 

Malachi is the closing book of this, as of the 
whole prophetic group. The returned Jew is 
pretty well settled as a vassal people under their 



The Evidence in the Case 233 

Babylonian governor, and the regular temple 
services and sacrifices established. But it is a 
thoroughly worldly, unspiritual people, and the 
temple service wholly perfunctory. 

There is a judgment coming on the Jew and on 
all the wicked. It will come as a crisis, suddenly, 
unexpectedly. Elijah would graciously be sent 
as a special messenger beforehand to prepare the 
people. Then God Himself would come to Jeru- 
salem. This is preparatory to a " delightsome ? ' 
Jewish restoration, which would be recognized 
by all nations. 1 

There are certain psalms that are clearly 
woven with the same warp and shuttle threads. 
With this conception in mind, of a crisis of the 
nations coming, and God acting directly in the 
crisis in vindication of wrongs, and then a glori- 
ous kingdom following over all the earth, I say 
with this in mind, if one will read the Second 
Psalm, the latter part of the Twenty-second 
(verses 22-31, but in connection with what goes 
before), the connected group — Forty-sixth, 
Forty-seventh, and Forty-eighth, the Fiftieth, 
the Seventy-second, the connected group — 
Ninety-fourth to the One Hundredth, inclusive, 
and the One Hundred and Tenth, he will find 
that at least the writers here had the same gen- 
eral vision of which we have found these old 
Hebrew prophetic pages to be so full. 

Let us make here a very brief comprehensive 
summing up of all these teachings in mere out- 
1 Malachi 3: 1-4, 12; 4: throughout. 



234 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

line. The full outline is found in chapters three 
and four of this little book. There is a time of 
crisis coming in the affairs of the earth. It will 
be first of all a crisis of judgment on the Jew 
through a great evil king at the head of a league 
of nations. 

This will be turned into a crisis of judgment 
on all the nations of the world. And this in turn 
will be followed by a Jewish restoration as a 
nation through a great righteous King coming. 
Then there will be a new blessed order of things 
on the earth, under Jew leadership, with this 
great King reigning over the Jew and over the 
whole earth. 

The Jew situation at the beginning of the 
crisis may be briefly summed up thus: the Jew 
has reorganized as a nation, after centuries of 
denationalization. He is settled in Palestine as 
his homeland. The temple has been rebuilt. 
And the old Jew system of sacrifices is in full 
swing. A seven-year treaty is made with the 
king of a northern league of nations. 

It is at this point, when the treaty is made, 
that the thread of Jew history is picked up by 
the prophetic pens, after the long gap when the 
Jew though a race is not a nation. This seven- 
year treaty is abruptly broken by the king of 
the northern league when it has run out just 
half its length. It is at this point that the crisis 
begins for the Jew. 

The world situation at the opening of the crisis 
is indicated as follows : there will be a ten-king- 



The Evidence in the Case 235 

domed confederacy or league of nations. This 
develops later into an eight-kingdomed league 
or coalition. This league will be north, or 
mainly north, of the Mediterranean Sea, and 
seems to extend to and include the Russian peo- 
ples lying north of the Black Sea and the 
Caucasus. 

There is another great power lying mainly 
south of the Mediterranean, whether a con- 
federacy of powers or not is not stated. But 
it is of sufficient numbers and power to attack 
and to cope with the northern league. These 
two powers or coalitions are in repeated armed 
conflict. 

The head of the northern league is a king of 
outstanding dominating personality, who comes 
out of the kingdom of Greece, slips into the posi- 
tion of leadership by cunning craft, and remains 
at its head until the crisis is over. It is he who 
makes the seven-year treaty with the newly- 
formed Jew nation, and becomes the persecutor 
in their terrible crisis. 

There is a transition period between the 
present order of things on the earth and the new 
order coming. It runs from the beginning of 
the time of the crisis up to the beginning of the 
new order of things. This transition period 
covers twenty-three hundred actual days, that 
is six years four months and twenty days, reckon- 
ing thirty to the month. It seems to be put in 
this way because the word year does not stand 
for an exact period of time through history. 



236 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

This period divides into three parts. The 
Jew crisis or persecution runs twelve hundred 
and sixty days or three and a half years. The 
world crisis, immediately following, runs ap- 
parently for seventy-five days. Then there is 
a time of readjustment before the new order is 
inaugurated, running through nine hundred and 
sixty-five days, that is two years eight months 
and five days. 

Briefly, this is the general outlook of the 
reverent, thoughtful Hebrew about the future as 
the Old Testament period comes to its close. 
There is a great king coming, a king of the Jews ; 
through Him there would be a wondrous Jew 
kingdom. The time of Jew suffering is then at 
an end. Instead, the new Jew kingdom would 
fill and bless all the world. This was the domi- 
nant thought with Simeon and Anna as the New 
Testament period begins and as they reverently 
hail the virgin Mary with her Babe in the 
temple. 

Now I am not discussing the likelihood of 
these things being so, nor yet attempting to 
speculate as to how they would fit, or not fit, 
into the present world situation. My task is a 
much simpler one. I am simply gathering up 
what seems the consensus of statements of the 
prophetic writings, taken at their first meaning 
to those writing, regarding things that very 
evidently have not taken place. 

And I am not expressing any personal judg- 
ment regarding these things. But I have a pro- 



The Evidence in the Case 237 

found conviction of the utter dependableness of 
tins old Book of God for the future, as for the 
past, and for moral issues in the present. The 
one tiling to stress is getting at in a simple, clear 
way, just what the Book does say. 

And it is good as we close this look into the 
old pages of the Book to recall the striking word 
back in Isaiah. It gives the wise personal, prac- 
tical attitude toward all this sort of thing during 
the present time. 1 

A free translation of the thought is something 
like this: blessed are ye who, understanding 
about these coming things, meanwhile go steadily 
on doing faithfully the commonplace daily tasks, 
amid all sorts of circumstances and difficulties, 
steadily believing in the blessed outcome of sweet 
victory which God has planned. 



The Messages of Our Lord and His Followers. 

We turn now for a very brief run through the 
newer leaves of our Bible. These have been ex- 
amined rather carefully for this sort of thing in 
the two little books already sent out. ''Quiet 
Talks on our Lord's Return" deals with the 
teaching of the entire New Testament, and 
"Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ" deals with 
the Book of the Revelation. Now, I mean merely 
to gather up rapidly the main teaching para- 
graphs of the New Testament so as to get a broad 
general summary of the whole Bible. 
'Isaiah 32:20. 



238 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

It is striking to note the radical changes that 
have taken place in the world movement during 
the gap of time between the Old and New Testa- 
ments. There has been a marked shift. The 
center of civilization has swung from Asia to 
Europe, from the Orient to the Occident. The 
center of world leadership has swung racially 
from Shem to Japheth. 

The Babylonian power has quite gone. The 
Grecian has risen, reached flood, and gone. And 
now Rome has sway. Nebuchadnezzar's image 
has worn off its head and arms and thighs in the 
action of life and is down to its legs. The gold 
and silver and brass values in the principle of 
autocratic governmental rule have given way to 
the iron. The seat of world empire has moved 
from the Euphrates to the Tiber. 

It is interesting to note some of the character- 
istic differences between the two parts of the 
Bible as we pass from one to the other. The 
Old Testament is distinctively the Kingdom 
Book, after the few opening pages. It traces the 
Jewish story, and looks forward wistfully and 
steadily toward a Jewish world kingdom. 

The New is chiefly the Church Book, not 
wholly, but chiefly. It begins in the Gospels 
with the King claiming the kingdom, and giving 
wonderful samples of kingdom days and king- 
dom power. It ends in the book of Revelation 
with the kingdom established after a sharp crisis. 
All between these two relates to the Church. 

In the Old there is no Church. It comes into 



The Evidence in the Case 239 

being on the day of Pentecost. The Gospels are 
really sample days of the kingdom. The Church 
is not named there except in a few instances, 1 
and then only toward the close of Jesus' life 
when His rejection is clearly foreshadowed, and 
only to the inner groups of disciples who are the 
nucleus of the Church. 

The teachings of Jesus to the inner circle of 
the apostles, the Book of the Acts, and notably 
the Epistles, span the whole Church period. 
Here is given the characteristics of the Church 
period clear to its end, with a distinct growth in 
teaching as the group of epistles, taken in 
chronological order, develops. The Book of 
Revelation is addressed to the Church, and is 
meant to teach the Church about the group of 
events that will come at the end of the Church 
period, just before the kingdom period begins. 

We turn now to the New Testament, and as 
in the Old we will follow mainly the chronological 
order. The point of view of these writers is 
quite clear. To them Jesus is the promised King 
of the Old Testament pages. He has come to 
carry out the Old Hebrew prophecies and set up 
the kingdom. These men are Jews. Naturally 
the old prophecies colour all their thoughts. 
They live in the shadow of their sacred writings. 
The Old Testament Jewish outlook and hope are 
theirs. 

The apostles in the Gospels have no thought 
of Jesus being rejected and crucified. Though 
1 Matthew 16:18; 18:17. 



240 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

persistently told of this they can't seem to take 
it in. Throughout the Book of Acts, and in the 
Epistles, mostly interwoven into its pages, the 
leaders' one thought is that as Jesus was re- 
jected at His coming He must return to carry 
out the original plan. It is His rejection that 
necessitates a second coming. 

But first of all come the teachings of our Lord 
Himself, in the Gospels. There are four teach- 
ing paragraphs in Matthew. Along in the clos- 
ing year Jesus sends out the Twelve on a special 
mission to the Jews in Palestine. 1 The instruc- 
tions given them are clearly of local or immediate 
application. But there comes a break or shift 
between verses sixteen and seventeen. 

The paragraph, verses seventeen to twenty- 
three inclusive, speaks of experiences of sore per- 
secution that the disciples did not have at that 
time. This mission to the Jews by His disciples 
is connected here with His coming again. When 
He does come the Jew appears to be nationalized. 
The phrase "the cities of Israel " would natu- 
rally suggest that. So that when He comes 
again His disciples (the Church) would be wit- 
nessing in the midst of sore persecution, to the 
Jews nationalized in Palestine. The passage fits 
into the method in the prophecies of touching 
the present, then reaching forward to some fu- 
ture time, ignoring events in between. 

The transfiguration scene is introduced with 
the statement that some of His disciples would 
'Matthew 10:5-42. 



The Evidence in the Case 241 

"see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." 1 
Jesus in a blaze of divine glory accompanied by 
Moses, who had died, and by Elijah, who had 
been caught up without dying, conferring to- 
gether on a mountain, this is a picture of how 
the Son of Man will come into His kingdom. 

Toward the tragic end there is a phrase used 
that catches one's ear and eye. 2 Peter is ask- 
ing about rewards. Jesus says, "In the re- 
generation when the Son of Man shall sit on the 
throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon thrones 
judging the twelve tribes of Israel." The 
Syriac version correctly translates the opening 
words, "in the new age or new world." That is 
to say in the new order of things, the Church 
will be associated with the King in the adminis- 
tration of the kingdom, ruling over the Jew as 
in turn he rules over the world. 

Chapter twenty-four proves to be one of the 
great key-passages on this subject, giving rather 
definite, clear outlines. Jesus is seated on Olivet 
with four leaders, Peter, James, John, and An- 
drew, looking over at Jerusalem. He speaks of 
its utter destruction which would mean the utter 
defeat and destruction of the Jew nation. 

They ask three questions. When would this 
great disaster be ? When was He coming, i. e., 
in power to reverse the disastrous conditions and 
set up the new order? What would be the evi- 
dence to them beforehand that He was about to 
come? Clearly two things are grouped in their 

1 Matthew 16 : 28-17 : 8. ' Matthew 19 : 28. 



242 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

minds, the Jew disaster and His own coming in 
power to set up the new Jew kingdom. 

It should be noticed that in what follows Jesus 
is talking to four of His apostles. They are 
Jews by blood, but they are not Jews representa- 
tively. For they had broken with their nation 
in following Jesus. They are representatives 
of the Church, formed later, with themselves as 
the leaders. So the words are spoken to the 
Church through these leaders. 

It will make things clearer to note the mean- 
ing of two words used in this talk. The English 
word generation * may mean either a race or 
family stock, or all the persons living at one 
time. The word which Jesus actually used here 
has the same alternation of meaning. The sense 
of the passage in each case must determine what 
word should be used in translation. It becomes 
quite clear that the grouping of events spoken 
of here has not occurred. The generation of 
persons living at that time has passed away, but 
the Jewish race has not. The sentence would 
more accurately read "this race shall not pass 
away." 

The word elect occurs three times. 2 It clearly 
means either the Jew or the Church. It might 
mean either. In verse twenty-two it might mean 
either. But in verse twenty-four it clearly means 
the Church, for the Jews were being led astray 
then, and have been ever since about their Mes- 
siah. The effort spoken of here is to deceive, if 

a Matthew 24: 34. ■ Matthew 24: 22, 24, 31. / 



The Evidence in the Case 243 

possible, the followers of Christ, that is, the 
Church. This fixes the meaning of the word 
elect in this talk. 

Now look at Jesus' answer to their threefold 
question. It falls naturally into three parts. 
The common characteristics of the time, before 
and during the events talked of, would be wars, 
rumours of wars, famines and earthquakes. 
Among His followers there would be disloyalty, 
dissension, false religious teachers and a loss of 
personal devotion to Christ, with a great in- 
crease of missionary activities. 1 

At some future time there would be a perse- 
cution or tribulation. It would be of Christ's 
followers, i. e., ''for my name's sake." It would 
begin with the desecration of the Jewish temple 
in the extreme way noted by Daniel, so linking 
it up with the persecution of the Jew, as oc- 
curring at the same time. 2 

This tribulation comes to an end and is fol- 
lowed "immediately" with a visitation of judg- 
ments by God on the world, marked by disturb- 
ances in the heavens affecting the whole life of 
the earth. In connection with this three things 
happen. "The sign of the Son of Man" is seen 
in the skies. He is not seen yet, but something 
supernatural that makes the crowds realize that 
He is in action, for there is an instant change of 
attitude toward Him. They "mourn" or are 
penitent for their conduct. Then Jesus Himself 
is seen coming on the clouds of heaven with 

1 Matthew 24 : 4-14. 2 Matthew 24 : 9-28. 



244 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

great glory. And the " elect,' ' i.e., Christ's 
followers, are caught up openly before all eyes 
with the great sound of a trumpet. 

It will be noted carefully that the time of 
trouble commonly spoken of as the tribulation 
falls here into two parts. There is the tribula- 
tion proper, and then there is immediately fol- 
lowing a visitation of judgment. The line of 
difference between this is most striking. The 
two stand in sharpest contrast. In the tribxila- 
tion evil is at work persecuting God's people. 
In the visitation of judgments God is at work 
against the forces of evil. Satan's day is fol- 
lowed by "the day of the Lord," which has be- 
gun in this visitation of judgments. This talk 
really seems to give a simple broad program of 
events in the transition period. 

It will be noted keenly that the destruction of 
Jerusalem, with a prediction of which this chap- 
ter begins, is directly connected with a persecu- 
tion of the Church. In this it differs sharply 
from the destruction which occurred under 
Titus. It seems to be speaking of another 
destruction under different circumstances, and so 
points to the future. 

The remainder of the talk gives further de- 
tailed information about this stupendous twin 
event. Jesus tells His disciples that by intelli- 
gently watching the course of events one would 
know relatively when He was coming. The Jew 
race would be preserved intact until these events 
had worked out. This would be one of the 



The Evidence in the Case 245 

evidences of the certainty of these things com- 
ing. 

The world crowds would be utterly indifferent 
to the evidences of these things approaching, and 
would be completely taken by surprise. When 
Jesus comes some would be caught up out of the 
earth, His followers, the " elect" already spoken 
of, and the rest would remain on the earth. The 
exact time of His coming is utterly unknown, 
but the fact is even surer than that the sun and 
moon and stars shine. 

And the emphasis of the last word is put on 
the particular effect of all this meanwhile on 
one's daily life. We are to be living so in the 
common round of life that whenever He does 
come we're glad, and don't have to get ready, 
because we are ready. 

Luke's account of this same Olivet talk opens 
with two special warnings. 1 The first is against 
those coming who would pretend to be Christ. 
The second is of marked interest. They were to 
beware of the teaching that His coming might 
occur at any moment. ' i Many shall come . . . 
saying 'the time is at hand,' go ye not after 
them." For certain occurrences would come 
first, and be evidence to them of His own ap- 
proaching advent. 

Their talk then follows essentially the same 
lines as in Matthew and Mark, namely, a tribula- 
tion of God's people, followed by a visitation of 
judgment upon evil. The visitation would be 
1 Luke 21: 8. 



246 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

marked not only by a shake-up in both earth and 
heavens, but before this by terrifying signs in 
the heavens, and the crowds would be terror- 
stricken by them. 

There is here a striking appeal to His fol- 
lowers, in view of the difficulty of keeping true 
to Him during the persecution. 1 A free reading 
will give a much more accurate impression of 
what He says in this plea, than do the English 
versions. "But watch ye at every season, mak- 
ing supplication, that ye may get the victory (in 
your personal lives) over all these prevailing 
evil influences (that will mark the time) and so 
stand accepted before the Son of Man." 

This is the substance of the teaching bits in 
these four Gospels from Jesus ' own lips. He is 
coming back to set up a new order of things on 
the earth. In connection with His coming there 
will be a visitation of judgments on evil. This 
will be preceded by a persecution of Christ's 
followers. 

This latter is connected with a witnessing by 
His disciples to the Jews gathered as a nation 
in Palestine. At His coming His followers will 
be caught up into the heavens, and all the others 
left on the earth. And in the new order of 
things on the earth His followers, or some of 
them, are to be associated with Himself in the 
administration of affairs. 

And now a look at the Book of The Acts. The 
startling leave-taking of Jesus from His disciples, 
'Luke 21: 36. 



The Evidence in the Case 247 

on Olivet, up into the air out of sight, is accom- 
panied by the statement given by the two men 
or angels, — "this Jesus . . . shall so come 
in like manner as ye beheld Him going into 
heaven." 1 This would naturally fix the fact 
of His return, as well as the manner of it, firmly 
in their mind as the chief objective in coming 
days. 

Peter's sermon on Pentecost a connects the out- 
pouring of the Holy Spirit which they had just 
experienced with the passage in Joel. But he 
does not say that it was a fulfilment of the Joel 
passage, as of course it was only in part. Joel 
saw the Spirit poured out on "all flesh.' ' Here 
He is poured out on a limited group, and in suc- 
ceeding days on other groups. The wondrous 
signs that Joel says will accompany the out- 
pouring of which he speaks do not occur. 

Peter 's point of view is gotten in his quotation 
from the One Hundred and Tenth Psalm, taken 
with a sentence in his next sermon in the fourth 
chapter, — ' ' . . . Jesus, whom the heaven must 
receive until the time of the restoration of all 
things" spoken of by the prophets. This out- 
pouring was a blessed prelude to the full out- 
pouring at some future day, in connection with 
the tremendous occurrences in earth and heaven, 
when Christ would come out of the heaven and 
restore all things to the ideal held in His own 
heart. 

The first Church council at Jerusalem makes 
'Acts 1:11. 'Acts 2:14 and on. 



248 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

clear, further, the point of view of these Church 
leaders, and the objective in all their intense 
activities. 1 Naturally it rests back wholly on the 
Old Testament outline. James, the presiding of- 
ficer of the council, makes the summing up which 
is accepted as the council's deliverance on the 
subject being considered. 

And this really presents a future program or 
outline of future events as they saw them. The 
preaching which they were doing was to prepare 
the way for a Jewish restoration and through 
that there would be a world-wide movement for 
tt iching men of God. Clearly to them the Jew- 
is} restoration was through the personal return 
of Christ. 

And now a brief look at the Epistles, omitting 
mere allusions, and taking the outstanding teach- 
ing paragraphs. Usually each paragraph speaks 
oi some one phase, all together giving the con- 
nected outline. 

The First letter to the Thessalonian Church 
speaks of what Christ's return would mean to 
His followers, both dead and living. 2 The Lord 
would come down out of the heavens "with a 
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with 
the trump of God," a threefold publicity. Then 
the believing dead would be raised, the living 
believers would be joined with them as they are 
caught up into Christ's presence somewhere in 
the heavens. 

1 Acts 15, and note verses 14-18. 

2 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18. 



The Evidence in the Case 249 

The Second letter to the Thessalonians speaks 
of the things that will happen immediately be- 
fore Christ's return, so that they may have a 
more intelligent understanding on the subject. 1 
This letter seems to have been written to correct 
some mistaken notions and teachings. Some 
seemed to be teaching that Christ's return for 
His own was impending, just at hand, might 
happen at any time. Paul explains that certain 
events will come first. 

There would be a falling away from the true 
faith in the Church. There is now a restraint 
upon evil in the world. At some future day that 
restraint would be withdrawn. Then there 
would forge to the front in the world a great evil 
leader. And he would be destroyed by the blaz- 
ing forth of the arrival or full coming of Jesus. 

This evil leader is called ' ' the man of sin, ' ' or 
"the man of lawlessness." He is "the son of 
perdition." He opposeth and exalteth himself 
against all that is called God or is an object of 
worship. He sits in the temple of God (that is, 
the Jewish temple at Jerusalem), and sets him- 
self forth as God. His sway is marked by deceit 
and lying and by miracles, supernatural Satanic 
miracles. 

The present restraint upon evil is said to be by 
a person. It seems clear that there can be only 
one person meant, the Holy Spirit, who came 
down on the day of Pentecost and formed the 
Church by His presence in it. This restraint 
*2 Thessalonians 2: 1-12. 



250 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

will be withdrawn. That is, the Holy Spirit will 
reverse the action of Pentecost. 

Then He came upon the Church. Now He 
withdraws from the Church. He was in indi- 
vidual believers before Pentecost. He will re- 
main in individual believers after this with- 
drawal. That He withdraws is tremendously 
significant of the condition of the Church. It is 
a forced withdrawal. The "falling away" has 
become the dominant factor there. It is a heart- 
breaking bit of truth. 

His withdrawal gives evil free rein. The law- 
less one comes to the front and has sway for a 
time. And then he is slain by the blazing out of 
the presence of Christ as He arrives on the earth. 

One phase of "the day" for believers is 
touched upon in the First letter to Corinth. 1 
As believers are caught up the fire test of the 
mere presence of Christ, the Man of Fire, will 
be applied to their character and life. All in 
them that can't stand that presence will become 
as ashes. 

The remarkable resurrection chapter of this 
letter, the Fifteenth, has two pertinent para- 
graphs. There is first a sort of broad program 
of events given. 8 Christ's own resurrection was 
a first-fruits. At His return His own will be 
raised up even as He was. That is, there will be 
a partial resurrection, a resurrection of believers. 
Then follows the "Kingdom," which runs until 

'1 Corinthians 3:10-15. 
2 1 Corinthians 15:23-26. 



The Evidence in the Case 25 1 

all contrary rule and authority on the earth is 
quite overcome. Even "the last enemy shall be 
abolished (or made inoperative) — death." 

Then there is a bit of " mystery," that is 
really information for the inner circle, the be- 
lievers. 1 There would be a radical " change' ' in 
the bodies of believers, adapting them to the new 
conditions, as the trumpet tells of the approach 
of Christ. Believers who had died would be 
raised out of their graves, and living believers 
would experience a change in their bodies. 

In Romans there is a striking bit concerning 
the whole created world about us, animal and 
vegetable. The blight of sin is there, too. We 
don't know God's real creation. It's blighted, 
wonderful as it is. But at His coming there's 
to be a new touch of life there, delivering it too, 
and changing it back to Eden Ideals. 2 

Then there is the great Jew section of Romans. 3 
And this, be it noted, is a part of the Gospel 
Paul preached everywhere. For this Romans 
epistle is the outline of Paul 's Gospel. The Jew 
was not utterly cast off by God as His messenger 
nation. Their rejection was partial, for a cer- 
tain limited time. Even this had been a means 
of blessing to the non-Jewish nations. 

The period of Gentile or non-Jewish world 
leadership was limited in time. It was only for 
a certain well-defined though unknown length of 
time. At the close of that time there would be 

1 1 Corinthians 15: 50-52. 8 Romans 8: 20-22. 

3 Romans 9 to 11. 



252 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

a Jew restoration. Jewish world leadership 
would displace the Gentile leadership. The Jew 
kingdom, under Jesus their Messiah-Christ, 
would be world-wide, and of untold blessing to 
all the race. 

There is a teaching paragraph in 2 Peter? 
emphasizing the judgment phase of the day of 
the Lord. It seems to refer to the earth being 
wholly burned up and replaced by a new earth. 
If so, this would refer to what takes place in the 
final crisis at the close of the kingdom time as 
referred to in the beginning of the twenty-first 
chapter of Revelation. But it seems possible, 
even probable, that a better translation would 
make clear that it refers rather to the shake-up 
that takes place in the visitation of judgments 
following the tribulation. 

There will be strong antagonism to the teach- 
ing of the second coming of Christ as the age 
runs toward its close. But the long delay is a 
touch of God's patient love. He is not unmind- 
ful nor slack concerning His promises. But a 
strong long-suffering toward men makes Him 
hold out the present day of opportunity to the 
very last limit. 

John's chief Epistle gives much emphasis to 
the great evil leader of the crisis-time. 2 He gives 
him another title, the Antichrist. It is a most 
significant title. God's only Begotten is called 
the Christ, equivalent to the Hebrew Messiah. 
The Antichrist is the very opposite of God's 

'2 Peter 3:3-13. 2 1 John 2:18-23; 4:1-6. 



The Evidence in the Case 253 

Christ. He is the one who is opposed to Christ 
and to His coming back to reign on the earth. 

John gives here also significant space to the 
spirit of the Antichrist. That spirit was even 
then not only in the world, but in the Church. 
Then he defines the spirit of the Antichrist by 
which it may always be recognized. The touch- 
stone by which to recognize a true Christian 
leader is his being under the sway of the Holy 
Spirit, a Spirit-controlled man. 

The distinguishing mark of the Holy Spirit is 
the passion for Jesus. This is illustrated by the 
Book of Acts, which is distinctively the Holy 
Spirit Book, marked by His presence and con- 
trol. That Book is fairly aflame with the Jesus 
passion. John's own Gospel tells what the mean- 
ing is to him. The Book is flooded with the 
Jesus passion. 

Now this, John says here, is the touchstone. 
The absence of this, or the opposite of it, reveals 
the Antichrist spirit. There may be a flat denial 
of the distinctive deity of Jesus; or a use of 
certain accepted proper phrases with a plain 
thinning out of the distinctive meaning; or there 
may be something yet more common, simply an 
omission of reference to Jesus, a talking of God 
and the Father with marked omission of refer- 
ence to Jesus. 

John here says that all of this is the deadly, 
subtle Antichrist spirit. It is the very genius, 
the mark of identification, of the Antichrist. 
This spirit will spread and strengthen till its in- 



254 Th e Deeper Meaning of the War 

spiration, the Antichrist himself, appears in 
person on the scene. 

Jude's little one-chaptered epistle speaks of 
this same spirit of Antichrist. There were cer- 
tain leaders in the Church, even in his day, who 
denied the only Master and Lord, Jesus the 
Christ. 

The Book of the Revelation will be gathered 
up quite briefly, as it has been rather fully 
treated in " Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ 
of the Revelation. ' ' It deals almost wholly with 
the crisis time, sets it in relation to the new order 
following, and gives briefly a program of events 
after the new order has run its full course. 

Chapters four to twenty, verse three inclu- 
sive, deal with the crisis-time. Chapters four 
and five describe Jesus stepping again directly 
into the action of affairs on the earth. Then 
follows a series of views of the crisis from dif- 
ferent angles so as better to understand the 
whole thing. 

It will be remembered that we found that the 
crisis time falls into two parts, the tribulation 
proper, and the visitation of judgments immedi- 
ately following. The distinguishing mark of 
each of these two parts is simple and easy to 
pick out. In the tribulation evil is working 
against God's people. In the visitation of 
judgments God is acting in judgment against 
evil. 

The First View 1 outlines broadly the whole 
1 Revelation 6-7. 



The Evidence in the Case 255 

crisis time, both the tribulation and the visita- 
tion of judgments. The period begins as a 
time of peace. Antichrist seems to appear 
first as a man of peace, armed peace. 1 Then 
follows quickly the tribulation, 2 and then 
the visitation of judgments put very briefly. 8 

But it should be keenly noted that there is a 
parenthesis between these two. Chapter seven 
is the parenthesis. It fits in between verses 
eleven and twelve of chapter six. This can easily 
be noted by observing that in the judgments the 
earth is badly broken up by a great earthquake, 
and that chapter seven beginning with the com- 
mand that the earth was not to be * ' hurt ' ' until 
the events of this seventh chapter have taken 
place. 

In this parenthesis there are two significant 
things. The Jew nation in its corporate com- 
pleteness is " sealed' ' by the coming upon it of 
the Holy Spirit. This is the time when the Jews 
recognize and accept Jesus as their Mes- 
siah. 4 Then John suddenly sees a great number- 
less company of the redeemed who have come up 
out of the tribulation, the great one, and are 
before the throne of God. This is the time when 
the blood- washed Church is caught up out of the 
earth. 6 There the parenthesis closes. And now 
the earth is "hurt" as the visitation of judg- 
ments takes place. 6 

1 Revelation 6:2. 2 Revelation 6:3-11. 

8 Revelation 6:12-17. * Revelation 7 : 1-8. 

5 Revelation 7 : 9-17. « Revelation 6 : 12-17. 



256 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

The Second View 1 outlines the second phase 
of the crisis period, namely, the visitation of 
judgments. It falls into two parts, partial judg- 
ments on the earth, 2 and then a loosing out of 
the powers of evil as though to combat God and 
show their defiance of Him and His judgments. 
And there follows a terrific sway of demons on 
the earth. 3 

They are loosed at "the great River 
Euphrates," as though that is the center or head- 
quarters on the earth of the Satanic forces. It 
will be noticed that this comes as further detail 
of the brief statement in chapter six, verses 
twelve to the close. 

Chapter ten is a personal interview with John, 
with certain features which he is not to tell, and 
with the most solemn assurance that God will 
certainly carry out His purpose as outlined. 

The Third View* is of affairs in the city of 
Jerusalem during the tribulation. Two men, 
clothed in mourning to emphasize their message, 
bear witness to God's truth during the time of 
persecution. The length of the persecution and 
of their witnessing is put in two ways, forty-two 
months and twelve hundred and sixty days, ex- 
actly equivalent terms reckoning the month as 
thirty days. 

These two men have power to work miracles, 
and to protect themselves supernaturally, till 

1 Revelation 8 and 9. 'Revelation 8:6-12. 

8 Revelation 9 throughout. 
♦Revelation n throughout. 



The Evidence in the Case 257 

their mission is finished. Then they are killed, 
then brought back to life, and are "caught up" 
into heaven in connection with a great earth- 
quake. This is the point, at the close of the 
tribulation, when all the redeemed are caught up. 

The Fourth View * outlines the whole crisis 
period but much more fully than in the first 
view. There is a recital, alternately, of happen- 
ings in the upper spirit world and on the earth. 
After the introductory part, 2 there is a scene in 
the upper world. 3 There is a war on between 
Michael and Satan, resulting in Satan being de- 
feated and cast out of the heavens down to the 
earth. 

When cast down to the earth Satan at once 
begins to persecute the Jew nation. But it is 
"nourished," kept from being wiped out. This 
continues three and a half years or twelve hun- 
dred and sixty days. The same event runs 
through this portion of time, making clear that 
they are meant to be equivalents. He also perse- 
cutes "the rest of her seed." The symbolical 
woman is clearly meant to represent the Jew 
nation. And of course the Church was born in 
the Jew nation. None other than the Church 
could be meant by the phrase "the rest of her 
seed. ' ' 

As Satan is cast down to the earth there forges 
to the front among men a great evil leader. 4 He 
is Satan 's special representative on earth, his 

1 Revelation 12-14. 2 Revelation 12 : 1-6. 

5 Revelation 12:7-12. * Revelation 13. 



258 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

plenipotentiary, full-powered. He combines all 
evil traits, and is blasphemous to the extremest 
degree. He makes war with "the saints " and 
overcomes them within a limit of forty-two 
months. The persecution of God's people is car- 
ried to the utmost extremes. It is most signifi- 
cant that three times it speaks of his having been 
some one who had been slain and is now living 
again. He awakens universal wonder and ad- 
miration, and has a chief associate who stirs the 
crowds on his behalf. 

As the persecution is at its worst the scene 
abruptly shifts again to the upper spirit world. 1 
John is surprised suddenly to see a great com- 
pany before the throne. There are one hundred 
and forty-four thousand of them, the number of 
corporate completeness. These are they who 
have been redeemed out of the earth. The 
Church has been caught up and away. The 
tribulation has run its course. 

Once again the scene shifts to the earth.* The 
visitation of judgments is introduced with a 
series of warnings: a warning of judgment im- 
pending; a warning that the Babylon system is 
cloomed. There's a pleading call to the crowds 
on the earth, and some hear the call and resist 
the evil at the cost of their lives. Then the 
visitation of judgments itself occurs, stated in 
vivid language, and occurring in two parts. It 
will be noted again that the Church is caught 

'Revelation 14:1-5. 
'Revelation 14:6-20. 



The Evidence in the Case 259 

away between the persecution and the visitation 
of judgments. 

The Fifth View " deals with the second part of 
the crisis, the visitation of judgments, when the 
righteous ' ' wrath of God ' ' is poured out. There 
is a visitation of judgment upon the earth or 
land, the sea, the rivers, and the sun, causing 
great distress; then upon "the throne of the 
beast." And then upon the Euphrates River, 2 
as though it is connected with the throne or gov- 
ernment of the Antichrist. 

Then there's a combative movement on the 
part of the evil powers. Through the activity 
of demons they seek to rally "the kings of the 
whole world" to fight against God, at a place 
called Armageddon. 3 And the final act in the 
visitation of judgment is a great storm and 
earthquake and the full victory of God against 
this supreme attempt of organized evil. It will 
be noted that Armageddon is not a battle of 
nations among themselves, but of all against God. 

The Sixth View * deals with the system of evil 
in the world upon which judgment is visited im- 
mediately after the tribulation. It appears here 
as a blasphemous beast carrying a gorgeously 
attired woman. Upon the woman's forehead is 
seen the inscription, "mystery, Babylon the 
great, the mother of the harlots and of the 
abominations of the earth." The system of evil 
in the world is commonly spoken of in Scripture 

1 Revelation 15, 16. 9 Revelation 16 : 1-12. 

8 Revelation 16 : 13-16. 4 Revelation 17 and 18. 



260 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

as Babylon. It has sometimes operated through 
governments, and sometimes through the organ- 
ized Church system of the world. Here at the 
last the Church is discarded as an agency 1 and 
the system finds its embodiment in a city. 2 

This system of evil, throughout history, passes 
through seven governmental phases, and at the 
end it becomes a ten-kingdomed confederacy or 
a league under one head, the great evil leader. 8 
This leader has an exceptional uncanny career, 
running through four phases. He was; then he 
was not; then he comes up out of the abyss, and 
then he goes into perdition. He seems to be the 
human embodiment of Satan, one who has been 
in action as a man before, and is now brought 
back from the dead for this crisis. 

At the last this league of nations under this 
terrible Satan-leader unite to fight against "the 
Lamb." Armageddon is a war against God. 
And then these are all defeated decisively by our 
Lord Jesus when He appears. When our Lord 
appears at this point of conflict with evil and 
victory over it, He is attended not by all of His 
followers, but by those "called and chosen and 
faithful." 

That is, those who have answered the call to 
salvation, responded to the service for which they 
were chosen, and were obediently faithful to the 
Master in that bit of service. Chapter eighteen 
gives the detail of the fall of this great system 

1 Revelation 17 : 16, 17. 2 Revelation 17 : 18. 

3 Revelation 17 :9-i3. 



The Evidence in the Case 26 1 

of evil. And here the fallen Babylon is said to 
become the hold or prison house of demons. It 
will be recalled that it was from the Euphrates 
that the vast demon hordes were loosened out in 
chapter nine. 

The Seventh View, 1 like the Fifth and Sixth, 
gives a part of the visitation of judgments, the 
closing scene, the battle of Armageddon between 
the forces of God and of Satan. This will be 
recognized as the detail of chapter sixteen, verses 
fourteen to sixteen. The heavens open and 
Jesus appears in power and glory, accompanied 
by the purified ones. He comes in vengeance or 
in vindication of God. The only weapon He 
uses is the sword of His mouth. The defeat fol- 
lows of all the forces arrayed against Him. This 
is the point at which the great evil leader is 
slain. 

Now follows the new order of things. Christ 
reigns on the earth. His faithful ones reign 
with Him. Some of these have been raised from 
the dead. The unbelieving dead are not raised 
at this time. 

Then follows a quite new bit. This new order 
is not the final thing. Satan is loosed again; 
there's a final crisis, and a final defeat for him. 
Then a resurrection of all the rest of the dead, 
the final adjustments and the new heavens and 
earth. 

Now let us try to make a brief comprehensive 
summing up of these New Testament teachings 
1 Revelation 19-20 : 3. 



262 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

in bare outline. There is coming a great crisis 
to the earth, through an evil world leader. This 
crisis falls into two parts, a tribulation or perse- 
cution for the Jew and for the Church, and then 
a visitation of judgment upon evil. 

This crisis comes to a close by the personal 
return of the Lord Jesus. There are two phases 
or parts to His return. The first is this: there 
will come something, some evidence in the 
heavens that will indicate His approach to the 
earth, and will be so recognized commonly by 
all. At this evidence of His approach the be- 
lieving dead shall be raised from their graves, 
living believers will experience some change in 
their bodies, and these two groups shall be caught 
up into Jesus' presence in the heavens. Then 
will immediately follow on the earth a visitation 
of partial judgments. 

The second phase of Jesus' coming is this: at 
some time later He will openly appear out of the 
heavens accompanied by some of His followers 
for the final act of the visitation of judgments. 
Then will follow the new order of things on the 
earth, Christ reigning, and some of His fol- 
lowers associated with Him in the reigning. 

The world situation at the time when the crisis 
begins, briefly, is as follows : there will be a ten- 
kingdomed confederacy under a remarkable blas- 
phemous self-assertive king. There will be an 
utter indifference to these impending events, 
men pursuing their accustomed round up to the 
very moment when the crisis, and then our Lord, 



The Evidence in the Case 263 

comes. It looks as though there would be a great 
city of world commerce and shipping in the val- 
ley of the Euphrates at or near old Babylon. 

The situation in the Church at the opening of 
the crisis, briefly, is as follows: there will be 
a marked falling away from the simple Gospel of 
the Crucified Christ. There will be a common 
rejection of Christ's coming personally a second 
time, and more, a mocking and scoffing attitude 
toward the matter. 

The Holy Spirit will have withdrawn from the 
Church as a Church, though of course not from 
individual believers. It will be because of the 
practical ignoring of His presence and leader- 
ship. The spirit of the Antichrist will be ani- 
mating the teaching and leadership of the 
Church either in a flat denial of the deity of 
Jesus, or a practical or actual ignoring of the 
distinctive Christ message. 

The Jew situation at the time. The Jew will 
be back in Palestine, renationalized, with the 
temple rebuilt, and the old system of sacrifices 
in full swing. He will have made a seven-year 
treaty with the king at the head of the ten- 
kingdomed league. 

And now I want to try to gather up into one 
brief, broad summary the teachings of the entire 
Book, Old and New Testaments, in bare outline. 

There is to be a time of crisis on the earth. 
The situation at the time in the world, in the 
Church, and in Jewry, will be as just described. 
The crisis will come through the leadership of a 



264 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

great evil king at the head of a league of nations. 
It will center about the east end of the Medi- 
terranean Sea. It will pass through two 
stages. 

First will be a persecution carried to great ex- 
tremes, of the Jew and also of the Church, the 
followers of Christ. It runs through a little 
less than three and a half of our actual years. 
Then there is an exact reversal of the situation. 
There comes a visitation of partial judgment by 
God on evil. This apparently runs through 
seventy-five days. 

This crisis is brought to a close by the per- 
sonal return of the Lord Jesus to the earth. His 
return is in two phases. There will be some 
supernatural evidence in the blue heavens over 
our heads that He is approaching. It will be 
commonly so recognized. At this time the Jews 
recognize that Jesus is their Messiah and they ex- 
perience a change of heart by the touch of the 
Holy Spirit. The believing dead are raised, and 
together with all living believers, are caught up 
out of the earth up into the presence of the ap- 
proaching Christ. The persecution ends. And 
the crowds left on the earth become penitent. 

The second phase comes a little later, ap- 
parently seventy-five days later. During that 
time there has been the visitation of plagues, 
which is followed by an organized movement of 
all the nations against God and against the Jew 
as His peculiar people. Christ appears openly 
in the heavens at Olivet, attended by His re- 



The Evidence in the Case 265 

deemed ones. The Jews who have been suffering 
a terrible siege at Jerusalem are delivered and 
the forces of evil utterly defeated. 

The personal return of Christ introduces a 
new order of things on the earth, commonly 
called the kingdom. In this new order He reigns 
over the Jew nation and over all the earth. The 
Jew becomes the leading nation of the earth, but 
he is an utterly changed Jew. The Church is 
associated with Christ in the conduct of the king- 
dom. And the new order brings the fullest 
blessing to all. 

The transition period between the old and the 
new order of things will be roughly a little less 
than six and a half years, actually twenty-three 
hundred days. This divides into three stages. 
The persecution of the Jew and the Church runs 
a little less than three and a half of our years, 
actually twelve hundred and sixty days. The 
visitation of judgments immediately following 
runs apparently seventy-five days. Then there 
is a time of readjustment before the new order 
is fully inaugurated, of some two years and eight 
months, actually nine hundred and sixty-five 
days. 

As we close this long chapter, please note the 
practical attitude one should have toward all 
this. Two bits come to mind. One from the 
lips of Isaiah, already quoted, " blessed are ye 
who, understanding about these coming events, 
meanwhile go quietly on, doing faithfully the 
day's simple, common tasks, amid all sorts of 



266 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

circumstances and difficulties, steadily believ- 
ing" in the blessed, victorious outcome. 1 

And the other is one of the many bits of the 
sort from our Lord's own lips: " blessed is that 
wise servant whom his Lord when He cometh 
shall find attending faithfully to the simple 
round of daily duties, in the corner where his 
lot is cast," 2 with his heart in tune with his 
absent Lord. 

'Isaiah 32:20 paraphrased. 
2 Matthew 24:46 paraphrased. 



VI 
THE PRESENT OUTLOOK 

Discernment. 

A young mother holding her babe in her arms 
entered the old weather-gray Jewish temple. A 
light shawl was draped over her head. It made 
her gentle face stand out with unconscious 
artistic grace. It was a grave young face. 
Purity was in every line. The awe of fresh 
maternity lit it up with a rare holy light. 

There was marked strength in the quiet, steady 
look of her eyes. She came in with the modest 
shyness of reverence. Her husband was by her 
side. He was a thoughtful, bearded man of 
matured years, but without the light in eye and 
face that marked the woman's. He was of the 
steady plodding sort. 

They had come, these two, with the babe to the 
temple for the simple ceremonial rites required 
in the Hebrew law. They brought the offering 
of the poor as they presented themselves to the 
priest, and did as was the custom of their re- 
ligion. 

And as they passed within the temple pre- 
cincts there came up an old man named Simeon. 
He gazed intently into their faces, and then im- 
petuously stopped them. There was an intense 
fire burning in his eyes. A pure, holy light lit 
up his lean, strongly-marked face. His eyes were 
267 



268 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

fixed with a raptured look on the Babe, and his 
arms stretched out as though to take Him. 

Wondering, yet under a gentle compulsion of 
spirit to yield, the young mother permitted him 
to take her child. And the old saint in low, 
hushed voice, yet clear, vibrant tones, a reverent 
rapture lighting up his wrinkled face, said, 

"Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart, Lord, 
According to Thy Word, in peace ; 
For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, 
Which Thou hast prepared before the face 

of all people; 
A light to lighten the nations ; 
And the glory of Thy people Israel." 

He recognized in the young Babe the promised 
Messiah of his people and the Saviour of the 
world. His mind and his eyes were lightened 
by reverent study of the old Hebrew Scriptures, 
and by the Holy Spirit. He discerned the 
stupendous thing that was happening. The 
Christ had come. This Babe was He. 

And the young mother and her husband lis- 
tened and watched with tense spirit, and marked 
keenly his words. Then the old man raised his 
frail hands tremblingly and spoke the benedie- 
tion of God upon them and their holy charge. 
And they bowed reverently to receive the bless- 
ing. 

A little group had gathered watching and lis- 
tening and wondering. And as the old man's 



The Present Outlook 269 

hands lowered, a woman named Anna standing 
on the edge of the group spoke out. She was 
very old and gray and bent and frail. She was 
a familiar figure in the temple, there daily, and 
almost constantly, and well known for her holy, 
devoted life. 

She too recognized the Child even as the old 
man had done, and fervently thanked God for 
what was happening. And then turning she 
spoke to the small group gathered, of the won- 
drous fulfilment of God's purposes for their 
nation through this Babe. 

Gradually the little group scattered. And 
the young mother with her Babe, and her hus- 
band, wended their way out of the buildings 
down the hill toward their simple lodgings in 
the city. 

The most stupendous event of history, now 
commonly so recognized, had begun. Yet it was 
unrecognized. None saw or understood. This 
man-Babe would change the calendar of imperial 
Rome and of the world. He would be the occa- 
sion of the break-up of the Hebrew nation, be- 
cause of their break-away from God's plan. 

He would be the cause of the nation coming 
to its greatest glory, some day, centuries after. 
He would be the means of the whole world being 
morally revolutionized. The Hebrew Sacred 
Book was aflood with the story of His coming. 
Yet politician and priest, Bible student and 
trader, the cultured, the wealthy, and the com- 
mon crowd — none sensed the situation. 



270 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

Just two persons outside the small inner per- 
sonal circle directly concerned, discerned, recog- 
nized, understood, what was happening. Yet 
looking back we all see plainly enough now the 
clear evidences given, the shepherds' open vision, 
the inquiring wise men, the exceptional star, the 
nation's officialdom astir with questionings, and 
the remarkable fulfilment in detail of the Scrip- 
ture regarding the particulars of His birth. 

Discernment is rare. Spirit discernment, as 
well as mental, sane and clear, of events, is sim- 
ple and rare. Yet any one may have it in some 
good degree, for it's a matter of cultivation. A 
will strongly held in tune with God's, habitual 
brooding over the Book of God, the life held 
true, and the spirit held ever open upward, will 
bring some simple understanding of God 's plans. 
It will bring discernment of how things are 
working out. Both Simeon and Anna are illus- 
trations of this. 

We are standing just now at a great turning 
of the road in world affairs. This is commonly 
recognized by all. The world will never again 
be the same. Epochal events have taken place, 
and are taking place. It is a rare privilege to 
be living at such a time. And it is a rare oppor- 
tunity to study the world situation and try to 
discern simply, clearly, sanely, the significance 
of present events. 

The New World Unity . 
Shall we not then climb the mountain top 



The Present Outlook 271 

where one can see far, and with Bible in hand, 
and knees habitually bent, shade our eyes from 
the near-by lower lights that are so apt to dis- 
tract, and try to get some clear, broad view of 
the whole world outlook of our own time. 

We have been making a review of the teach- 
ings of the Bible regarding the future. There 
is coming a stupendous, unprecedented crisis, 
then immediately the Christ, then the Kingdom. 
Certain things have been noted as characterizing 
the world situation as the crisis opens. Four of 
these stand out: the renationalization of the 
Jew, a coalition of European powers, a possible 
city of world commerce in the valley of the 
Euphrates, and certain conditions and tendencies 
within the Church. 

Now with these in mind let us take a thought- 
ful look at the world situation of the present 
moment. It is a fascinating situation from any 
point of view. History is in the making before 
our very eyes. But we want now to look only 
for those things that properly belong to our pur- 
pose in these studies. 

The biggest thing at the moment is the Peace 
Conference at Paris. It can be said thoughtfully 
that it is the most remarkable statecraft gather- 
ing of history. It is distinctively a world gath- 
ering. The nearest approach to it is the Con- 
gress of Vienna in 1814. 

But that was Europe. This is the whole 
world. There monarchs ruled. Here there are 
no monarchs, but leading statesmen of Europe, 



272 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

Asia and the Americas. And most of these, and 
all of the chief leaders among them, are elected 
by the common vote. 

Gathered with them are hundreds of experts, 
military and naval, in finance, economics, geo- 
graphical lines, map-making, statistics, racial 
groupings, labour interests, and socialistic teach- 
ings; with interpreters and translators by the 
score, and correspondents uncounted. 

The Conference is being accepted as the 
world's tribunal. The nations of the earth, 
small and large, Orient as well as Occident, are 
presenting their claims to it as to the world's 
Supreme Bench. 

And the biggest subject being discussed is the 
League of Nations. This is of intensest interest. 
The main purpose is to see that this thing will 
never happen again, this thing of such a world 
war. The best brains of men, and the utmost 
skill and experience, are absorbed in this one 
noble purpose; — it mustn't happen again. 

It is fascinating to recall that the Congress of 
Vienna had just got to this matter, and were 
planning some sort of a combination of nations 
to prevent future wars when — Napoleon broke 
loose again, and every one hurried off to stop 
him. 

The same thing has occurred at intervals 
through the last three hundred years. Kings, 
statesmen, publicists, and common folk have 
studied and written and outlined and proposed 
on this matter of a League of Nations, but with- 



The Present Outlook 273 

out result. Now the thing seems actually as- 
sured. The Peace Conference has adopted the 
principle, and its leaders are earnestly working 
out the practical details. And everywhere 
earnest men pray for their guidance and for 
success to come to their arduous labours. 

It is one of the most striking things in the 
world outlook to-day. World unity never loomed 
so big and strong and promising. And yet the 
situation fairly bristles with difficulties. Presi- 
dent Wilson in one of his Italy speeches, speak- 
ing of a League of Nations, said that we must get 
a new international psychology. It may take 
even more, a new heart! 

Our own nation's attitude seems nothing short 
of miraculous. Four short years ago we were still 
in our traditional, boasted position of isolation 
from European politics. Now we are practically 
in fullest alliance with Europe. And our chosen 
national leader and spokesman is not only taking 
a leading part in the Conference, but is insisting 
strenuously on certain radical positions. 

And he is clearly succeeding in winning gen- 
eral consent to his leadership in these ideals and 
plans and action. That such a change could 
have come would have been reckoned a wild 
dream; in August of 'Fourteen, the unlikeliest 
thing imaginable. And at the moment the al- 
most assured probability is that we shall be in 
very much deeper in the family of nations. 

This is one most striking thing. It awes the 
student of God's Word. The spirit of coalition 



V 



274 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

among the nations was never so strong nor so 
near some sort of realization. The world situa- 
tion seen in the Bible at the crisis time is not a 
coalition of all nations. It is simply a ten-king- 
domed coalition or confederacy, later an eight- 
kingdomed, and it centers in Europe and at the 
Mediterranean. 

The Mediterranean — The Jew. 

A second thing that catches the eye is not 
quite so much on the surface, yet not far from it. 
That is the distinct drift of the ivorld's trade 
movement back to the basin of the Mediter- 
ranean. The leadership of the world, and the 
center of world politics and action has never 
swung from Europe since Greece ascendancy as 
a world empire. 

But the trade movement, which is in reality 
the life current of the nations, had a wide swing. 
Up until the Sixteenth Century the Mediter- 
ranean was the world's trade center. With the 
discovery of the western continents and the 
great ocean highways, there gradually came a 
change. Trade moved out across the Atlantic 
and around the various continental ocean 
routes. 

But since the opening of the Suez Canal in 
1869 the world trade current has swung back to 
the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean has been 
spoken of as the world's greatest trade route. 

The Euphrates valley is in the swirl of action 
of the Mediterranean, though not in its drainage 



The Present Outlook 275 

basin. The lure of eastern trade and control has 
been strong on European statesmen. For a 
generation Britain has controlled the main 
water-route, the Mediterranean, through to the 
Orient. The Mediterranean is practically a 
British sea, controlled at both of its great ex- 
tremes, Gibraltar and Suez, by Great Britain. 

At its roots the war was a struggle for the 
control of the Mediterranean trade route. Ger- 
many, unable to get into the waterway control, 
succeeded in " doctoring " Turkey, "the Sick 
Man of Europe," and pushed her ambition for 
control of a new route to the East by land. 

The Euphrates is on the great highway of 
trade between Orient and Occident, lying on the 
edge of both. It seems well authenticated that 
Napoleon, in the flood of his power, had plans 
drawn for a city on the Euphrates, from which 
he could rule East as well as West. The twin 
valleys of the Tigris-Euphrates have been the 
world's granary and can be again. 

Huge engineering operations there, under one 
of England's prominent civil engineers, with 
abundant capital at hand, were under way be- 
fore the war. With England now in control 
there, and with the world's cry for food, it would 
be natural for its development to be pushed. It 
is not at all out of the probabilities, simply from 
the general outlook, to see a city of world com- 
merce spring up. That is a second thing of in- 
terest on the horizon. 

There's a third thing of yet tenser interest, 



276 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

the present Jew movement. The movement for 
renationalization by the Jew is more matured 
and aggressive at present than it has been at any- 
previous time. It has received the official ap- 
proval of the British Government. Various 
commissions are at work making careful, thor- 
oughly digested preparations for establishing the 
new Jew nation as soon as the necessary official 
decisions are made. 

The Jews of the world fall into three groups 
religiously, the liberals, the radicals, and the 
orthodox. The first two seem to have little or 
no interest in returning to Palestine. Many of 
them are opposed. They are the minority of the 
whole Jew population of the world. And most 
of them are in the United States and England. 
The attempts at merging the Jew racially is 
found among these groups. 

The big majority of the Jew population class 
as orthodox, most of whom look for the coming 
of their Messiah. By far the vast majority of 
the Jews are poor, pitiably poor. The larger 
part of them are found in Western Eussia and 
the eastern parts of Germany and Austria, 
Poland and the Balkans, and adjacent countries. 
That is to say, the majority of those naturally 
glad of the opportunity of going to a Jew home- 
land with full civil and religious rights, are near 
by Palestine, roughly speaking. 

It should be carefully noted that this present 
Jew movement may not come to a head. The 
tide may go back on the beach before it rises 



The Present Outlook 277 

again to flood. But it 's the highest Jew tide that 
has risen, thus far. 

The Religious Situation. 

The fourth item of special interest is the gen- 
eral Church situation. In our own country there 
is a remarkable movement toward Church unity. 
Steps have been taken on a wide scale in re- 
sponsible circles toward organic union. And 
aggressive programs are being planned for prac- 
tical unity in service on a scale of unprecedented 
magnitude. Most of this, it is noted, is for ex- 
tension of effort, while some includes also effort 
toward intensive toning up of spiritual condi- 
tions. 

But some thoughtful ones note with much con- 
cern the plain drift of things within Church 
circles. Speaking broadly, the dominant notes 
in the pulpit seem to be patriotism, idealism, 
Christianity, and the Church, with little propor- 
tionately of Jesus Christ and personal devotion 
to Him, and less of the fact that He was cruci- 
fied. The old notes of sin, sin's awful result, 
the imperative need of personal choice of Christ, 
of being born again, and of the gracious work 
of the Holy Spirit, these seem missing in in- 
creased and increasing degree. 

The fact that a man is in a pulpit to-day gives 
no clue to his belief on certain essentials, if you 
don't know what his beliefs are. I am thinking 
of such simple essentials as the distinctive in- 
spiration of the Bible, the distinctive solitary 



278 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

personality of Jesus blending deity with hu- 
manity, the peculiar significance and value of 
His death as apart from that of any other, the 
fact of His actual resurrection. 

I am thinking of such things as the need of a 
man's own personal choice as the decisive thing 
in determining his future, and the heart-break- 
ing final result for the man who insists on 
shutting or leaving God and Jesus out of his 
reckonings. 

The mere fact that a man is a leading member 
or an official in a church gives no clue to-day 
either as to his beliefs on such things, or, be it 
said thoughtfully and with sore heart, as to his 
moral character, if you don't know anything 
else about him. 

There is plainly a marked increase in thor- 
oughness of organization, in efficiency, in aggres- 
sive methods, grouping of statistics and the like. 
There seems to many a sharp decrease in spirit 
power, spirit discernment, and spirit atmosphere. 
It seems very difficult to think that the Holy 
Spirit is in control of the Church. It does not 
seem difficult to think that another spirit has got 
dominance in some instances. 

Akin to this there is another marked develop- 
ment, religiously, growing out of the war ex- 
periences. It is of a most startling sort. There 
is a marked increase of demon activity. I do not 
mean to say that it is commonly so recognized. 
The fact that it is not makes it more deadly. 

It has been very natural that the huge num- 



The Present Outlook 279 

bers killed in action has caused great concern 
among their loved ones. The question of im- 
mortality has been up all anew. Attempts to 
communicate with the dead, and the teaching 
that this can be done, have increased by leaps 
and bounds. 

Such teaching under the various names of 
spiritualism, spiritism, psychic research, occult- 
ism, and the like, has swung to the fore with 
speed and force, apparently to an unprecedented 
degree among Church people as well as outside. 
The literature of the subject, published by 
reputable houses, has greatly increased. 

It should be noted that in all this teaching 
there is a distinct blurring over, or ignoring of 
the plain teachings of the Gospel. A man's 
choice of Christ, or lack of choice, has nothing 
to do with his future, apparently. The future 
life is made a sort of vague continuation of the 
practices and customs common now. 

The revelation of God's Word regarding the 
awful consequences of sin unrepented of, and of 
the need of the atoning blood of Christ, is quite 
ignored or positively rejected. It is one of the 
significant things in the present outlook. And it 
is more, one of the marks of the world situation 
at the crisis time. ^ 

It would be fascinating to trace other char- 
acteristics of the world situation to-day. The 
speeding up of the wheels everywhere is tremen- 
dous. The energy released and fired by the war 
is finding outlet in commercial life, and will yet 



280 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

more. Feverish restlessness in countries most 
affected by war conditions, and in labour and 
socialistic circles, was never greater. National 
debts were never so big, and money never so 
abundant and free, generally speaking, with 
some notable exceptions. 

Vast enterprises are being talked of. Tunnels 
under the Dover-Calais Straits, and at Gibraltar, 
and at the Bosphorus, are being discussed. 
The possibility of all-rail service from London 
to Cairo, and down in the Sudanese districts of 
Central Africa is suggested. And a similar ex- 
tension of rail service from London across 
Europe and into far Tokio through Bombay and 
Peking finds space in the public prints. With- 
out doubt we are on the edge of a time of un- 
precedented material expansion and prosperity. 

The Real Test of Loyalty. 

But moral conditions commonly, what shall be 
said there? Continental standards of morality 
are quite distinct from British and American. 
As one crosses the English Channel from the 
Continent he is impressed with the fact that 
England has a conscience on morals. It would 
be quite natural if there had been a further 
loosening up of standards on the Continent dur- 
ing the war, despite wise attempts at restraint. 
All that comes sifting in colours such possibility. 

It makes one sore at heart to note the swift 
extension of continental standards of morality 



The Present Outlook 281 

westward. A generation ago London set the 
standards of life in New York, notably in men's 
dress, and commonly. Now continental stand- 
ards dominate its life. Any one who knows con- 
tinental fiction will know just how. 

But the matters of special note in this present 
connection are those four outstanding things first 
named. And they should be noted carefully, 
and only that one may pray more intelligently 
and understand more clearly. One should be 
very chary of mere speculation. There is the 
unmistakable acid test to apply in attempting to 
sense the world situation. 

That is the Jew; when the Jew actually re- 
nationalizes, and when further he makes a seven- 
year treaty with some king at the head of a 
coalition, that is the unfailing mark by which to 
identify things. That fixes a certain group of 
events. And it marks the limits of time within 
which the crisis and the Christ and the Kingdom 
will come. 

Meanwhile it should be carefully noted that 
the whole emphasis of the Book is on living a 
true life in one's daily round, true to Christ, to 
one's fellows, and to the common tasks. 

A Cambridge University man whose duty 
called him to service in the trenches in France 
made a keen remark. He was speaking of the 
strain of trench life, the awful tense strain. He 
said, ' ' There are three imperatives in the trench : 
food, work, and a comrade." 

The war has imposed severe discipline. It has 



282 The Deeper Meaning of the War 

touched all our life very closely, food, fuel, cloth- 
ing, travel, time of rising and going to bed, and 
so on almost endlessly. Everywhere the sever- 
est economies have been enforced. It has af- 
fected one's speech. A few words must be 
added here and there to make loyalty quite clear 
in the tenser air of war times. There has been 
a good bit of complaint. 

But this sort of thing is nothing new to the 
true follower of Christ. He has known war ex- 
periences of this sort long before the war came, 
and will on through peace days. He that insists 
on living true to Christ in a sane, clear, full way 
will know some sore experiences. 1 Trench life 
is not so new to him. He will appreciate the 
three imperatives of actual trench life in France. 

There needs to be the quiet time daily off alone 
with the Master over His Word. So food comes 
for heart and brain and life. So there come the 
clearer understanding, the purer heart, the 
straight life, the warm sympathetic touch with 
others, and above all the keeping true in all of 
this to the Man who died. 

And there needs to be the steady faithful do- 
ing of one's allotted task. There is no finer test 
of fidelity to our Lord Jesus than in being true 
to the common task in the corner where He has 
put us. 

And there must be a comrade. There is the 
unseen, ever-present Comrade. Jesus lived down 
here, partly, to be a comrade with us. He sent 
*2 Timothy 3:12. 



The Present Outlook 283 

His other Self, the Holy Spirit, to be our con- 
stant Comrade. And the closer our comrade- 
ship with Him, the truer will be our comrade- 
ship with our fellows. And we all need human 
comradeship to keep us human and sane and 
sweet and poised. 

And so with food, and work, and a comrade 
we shall hold true through the days of strain 
and stress, intelligently, patiently, sympathetic- 
ally true to Him who died, and to our fellows, 
and to our world. And so we hasten the better 
day that's surely coming. 



Appendix 



Notes on the "any moment," or "secret rapture" 
teaching. 

Most premillennialists seem to hold to the 
teaching, which is variously described as the 
' ' any moment ' ' theory, the ' ' secret rapture, ' ' and 
the "pre-tribulation rapture" theory. Briefly, 
in the main, the teaching is that our Lord's re- 
turn, so far as His followers are concerned, may 
occur at any moment, that it will be secret in that 
there will be no outer evidence of His having 
returned, except the strange unexplained dis- 
appearance of followers. And that this will oc- 
cur before the tribulation or persecution. And 
this conception has quite taken hold of the heart 
and imagination of those accepting it. Some 
rarely sweet poems, and imagined incidents, have 
been based upon it. 

It is interesting and instructive to trace the 
origin of this bit of teaching. There seems to 
be no trace of it in any literature previous to 
about eighty years ago. It seems to have arisen 
with a notable London preacher, Edward Irving, 
and to have gotten its wide circulation and ac- 
ceptance through a chief leader in England of 
the Plymouth Brethren, John N. Darby. 

Edward Irving was an earnest godly Scottish 
284 



Appendix 285 

minister, of impressive presence, with unusual 
gifts in oratory, and a deep emotional nature. 
He drew great and influential crowds in the two 
London churches he served, the Caledonian 
Church in Hatton Square, and the National 
Scotch Church of Regent Square. 

But the closing years of his short intense 
career (he died at forty-two) were marked by 
loss of popularity, and his expulsion from church 
connections. He developed vagaries of teach- 
ing, especially regarding supernatural gifts and 
eschatological subjects. The suggestions that 
Christians would be caught away secretly, and 
before the tribulation, so escaping its sore ex- 
periences, and that this might occur at any mo- 
ment, seem to have originated with him during 
those closing years. 

These points of teaching were taken up by 
Darby. John N. Darby was a man of deep 
piety, fine presence, and marked gifts of leader- 
ship and speech. His influence among the 
Plymouth Brethren was very great, not only 
extending their following among the people, but 
dominating their teaching and worship. Among 
those whom he won was the famous English 
scholar, Samuel Prideaux Tregelles. Darby gave 
such prominence to this particular teaching of 
Irving 's that it was definitely incorporated in the 
group of premillennial teachings. 

But Dr. Tregelles took exception to it, not 
only as not being taught in Scripture, but as 
being contrary to the Scripture. He wrote a 



286 Appendix 

pamphlet 1 in which he traced the teaching through 
Darby back to Irving. With his scholarly mas- 
tery of the original text, and his inexorable logic, 
he laid bare the fallacies involved. He in- 
sisted on the true Scripture teaching, that the 
second coming of our Lord would be quite ap- 
parent to all in both of its phases, that the 
Church would witness through the tribulation, 
and that certain unmistakable outward signs 
would indicate the approach of Christ. But 
Darby's insistent dominance as a leader had al- 
ready given the Irving view an established place 
among his followers, and so commonly among 
premillennialists. 

There used to be a well-known prophetic con- 
ference that met yearly at Niagara-on-the-Lake 
in Canada. It broke up about twenty years ago. 
The real reason for its discontinuance was the 
growing belief among certain leaders there that 
the ' ' any moment ' ' teaching was not Scriptural. 
And so the conference fell apart. 

Certain able scholars, habitually in attendance, 
pointed out the true Scripture teaching. It is 
interesting that there is no passage of Scripture 
that speaks, directly or indirectly, of the secrecy 
of the rapture. 

J "The Hope of Christ's Second Coming," by S. P. 
Tregelles, LL. D., published by Samuel Bagster & 
Sons, Ltd., London. 

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